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Starting to make beads....

If you are interested in learning how to make beads yourself, you need to do some homework. We get requests all the time to spell out what is needed to get started. In reality, it is not quite that simple! So much depends on your available workspace, your interests, your finances, and other resources that vary a great deal from one individual to another. Start with a few books and videos. This will be an investment of perhaps a hundred dollars. If you are seriously interested, this will be the best hundred bucks you ever spent! To set up a serious beadmaking station can take about $2000. A simple setup to play around a bit would cost a couple hundred. You need to research as much as you can before buying any glass and equipment. There is a tremendous amount of information available now on the web, and in books and videos. On our links page, we have many web resources listed. For everything you will need to make beads, as well as the books and videos, we recommend the following sources:

Frantz Art Glass & Supply  -  Pioneers of the bead biz, we buy our glass here.
Arrow Springs  -  The annealing oven we use comes from them.  A very informative site for beadmaking.
Devardiglass - Distributor of glass from India, plus great prices on tools and everything else. Lowest prices for beginner setup.
ABR Imagery - Focus on borosilicate glassblowing supplies, from Indiana.
Mountain Glass Arts - Distributor of borosilicate glass and flameworking supplies.

Need Lessons?

Bill now offers individual lessons from complete novice to advanced flamework for $25 an hour. Also lots of free information and consultation on your own work station setup.  I am working on more in the virtual classroom through the links at the top.