Fantasy Film

Olivia came to the studio empty handed and left, a mere hour later, with a handmade necklace and bracelet to match.  I work with a wide range of ages for individual lessons and try to offer a variety of artistic techniques that are age appropriate and which we can later expand on as the student gains experience with tools and methodologies.  I will often make use of Fantasy Film and Friendly Plastic bead making as a precursor to glass bead making. The principles are the same…a bead mandrel, bead release, a medium, and heat. In the case of Fantasy Film and Friendly Plastic, the mandrel is a wood dowel, the bead release is a piece of paper over the dowel, and the heat is provided by an embossing gun.  Students learn how to prepare materials for each bead, prepare the dowel for the bead, and use the embossing gun to ‘fire’ each bead. In the case of glass bead-making, the mandrel is a metal dowel which is prepared by coating of bead release (clay mud), and then ‘fired’ with a MAP gas torch.  The student pictured below is 8 year old Olivia Holt. Olivia was able to complete enough beads in one hour to make the necklace she is wearing as well as a bracelet. Impressive!