delicate twistie

Close up of a bead with a 'twistie" applied.

I played with glass the other day while my kiln was warming up, and here's one of the ways to make a twistie.

Decide on your colours. Take a main colour, and warm it up to about an inch. Don't melt, just make it so it doesn't shock. Take your other colours and swipe stripes side by side down the main rod, making sure they all come to the end. Melt it all in. Pinch a little bit of the glass with tweezers, wait a few seconds until it's not so 'floppy' and liquid, and then pull (like a stringer) but TWIST at the same time! Practice how fast you pull, and how much you twist.

THEN you have to practice how to apply them! Gah.