FINALLY!  I have a video of me melting glass to make a bead...filmed by Expert Cinematographer Wendy.  You will hear some background noise, which is really just the oxygen hissing out of the torch with the propane.  It doesn’t sound quite that loud in person, but the microphone on my camera is pretty sensitive.

You might notice the red numbers on the kiln flipping between the 936 and 0730 ranges.  If you’re wondering what those numbers are, the 936 is the current temperature of the kiln and the 0730 is how much time (7 hours 30 minutes) is remaining before the kiln automatically flips to the next cycle.

Since the camera does not have safety goggles attached, not as much detail can be seen while the bead is in the flame.  It looks like a large, yellow, fiery mass.  In person, you would be wearing the special safety goggles which filter out some of those harmful rays that make it much easier to see what is happening in the flame.

I make each bead individually by melting American, German, Italian, Chinese soft glass or stained glass in a hot flame.  Every glass bead is annealed in my kiln for at least eight hours and then meticulously hand cleaned with a dremel to remove all bead release from the inside of the bead.  The annealing & cleaning process ensures the strength & integrity of each bead to prevent cracking or breakage, should they drop or experience sudden temperature changes.