My latest favorite cool new tool is here (click on BeadLiner). I saw the ad in Bead & Button. What a splendiforous idea!! I see from the instructions that you still have to start it with a hammer (a nervous thing around glass beads) but I like the idea of the more controlled finishing process. I would think you could line with copper as well as silver, and why not line gemstones as well as glass? Oooooh, the possibilities....
Update: Hmmm, Ms. Aagaard does seem to be out of the BeadLiner business. That is kind of disappointing. I remember seeing instructions for making a silver core (without her machine) a while ago, I think in a Lapidary Journal. Basically, her machine is a c-clamp with a spindle. You put the core in the bead and put the bead (plus core) on the spindle, and screw the clamp closed. The pressure folds the ends of the core over the hole of the bead. I'll see if I can get some pictures up in the next few days, and/or track down the reference I saw earlier.
I am trying to find the beadliner tool and am having no luck...I visited the liseaagaard.com site and could not find it, can you tell me where to get it? Thanks Jeanne
Jeanne -
See my update above. I'll see what I can find out for you! It is really nice to be able to put these silver cores in lampwork beads (and hey, everybody's doing it now!) and you can do it without her gizmo, but it's a cool gizmo.... Please check back here :-)
Darcy
Jeanne -
See further updates here