Kidney Pendants - Artisan

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I’ve made all the pendants on this page using either vintage parts or glass beads made for me by a variety of glass working artists. Their beads are created over a torch, in the ancient technique called lampworking. A glass base bead is first formed on a rod of steel that has been dipped into a solution so the glass won’t stick permanently to the metal. Strands of glass rods are then melted onto that base bead to create patterns and designs. Each bead is made one at at time. Some intricate beads can take hours of work. There is a lot of skill that goes into glass bead making.

It isn’t easy to create a kidney shape from a ball of molten glass, but it is done over the hot flame, using a marver tool that presses and manipulates the glass to carefully shape the bead, and other tools to pinch or pull. I took several classes in it and loved it, but it takes a great deal of dedication to become masterful in lamp working.