Cool bead alert: powdered-glass donuts

Cool bead alert!

We’re told these invitingly inexpensive, glowingly colorful powder-glass “donuts” are made by crushing solid color seed beads.*

Recycled-glass wafers like these have been popular at our BeadTour bead shows. Look for them in your city soon (next spring), or order some now!

*Beadmakers might be interested in the process of making these discoidal darlings. In a nutshell:

• Make a clay mold.
• Choose glass by color, crush it by hand into “fritt”.
• Dip the mold in water, treat it with kaolin clay to prevent sticking.
• Place a cassava stalk in the center of each mold; fill in with fritt. (Firing burns the stalks away, leaving a hole for stringing.)
• Bake the molds in a kiln hot enough to fuse the glass.
• After firing, remove the molds.
• Shape and polish the beads on a stone using sand and water.
• Beads are sometimes oiled to bring out their natural shine.