Thursday 25 August 2011

SoftSpun Beads - a little tutorial.


I've been asked to do a tutorial for SoftSpun beads...




...so here we go....


I painted one side of the SoftSpun with red acrylic paint and gold metallics from Colourcraft.



The pictures shows the two sides - red acrylic on the left; metallic on the right...

...cut into my preferred shape for these beads. I know they look like miniature coffins, but they work for me!

Starting at the slightly wider end, roll the SoftSpun around a bamboo skewer, and secure with a glass-headed pin.




I use one of the heat guns with two speed settings, and begin to head the bead on the lower one until it JUST begins to distort.




Make sure the ends are heated to seal them (this stops the bead unraveling).





Take out the pin (make sure it's not too hot for your fingers!!!), and turn up the heat to the higher setting...

Waft the heat over the bead, turning the skewer as you go...

...until you have the look you want.



The one above was wound with the red acrylic side outermost...


.....the one below has the metallic side outermost.




Let the bead cool, and slide off the skewer.


Make a stash of them.....


..then all you need are a number of projects to use them in :-)