While Pandora beads have been around for a while now, I really did not take much notice of them until this past Christmas when the commercially made beads were being advertised all over the place.
Everytime I turned around they were showing up in the newspaper, on television commercials, the internet, and magazines. Being a consumer of all things jewelry related, they grew on me and I had to have one. Of course, as a lampworker, I couldn’t actually *buy* the commercially made glass beads – I had to make them myself.
The main difference between Pandora style beads and regular lampwork beads is just the size of the hole. All that was needed for me to make my new beads was the large size steel mandrels which create the correct size hole. It took a little getting used to holding and turning the much larger mandrel in my hand but after a couple of tries I had it down.
Once annealed and fitted with sterling silver end caps, I had a lovely bracelet filled with all my lampworked Pandora style beads (that’s my bracelet in the photo above)….and a few charms too ;-DĀ I imagine most people probably add more charms to their bracelet than lampwork beads, but I just couldn’t stop making these beauties – so my bracelet is loaded with them.
TIP: If you are thinking of buying a Pandora style bracelet yourself, one tip I have is to purchase the bracelet a full size (or at least 1/2 size) bigger than you usually wear. That extra length will be taken up by the lampwork beads once they’re added to the bracelet.
The beads that I get the most compliments on from my own bracelet are the ones I now offer for sale in my Ebay store. Here are just a couple of the Pandora style beads I offer that are currently available:
Until next time,
CCGlassArt 