Fabulous New Toy: Carlo Dona Bead Press

Not getting as much torch time in as I would like, but here is a little indulgence I got myself.

Ta da!

 

What is it, you ask? Well - it makes these:

It is a flower press. A Carlo Dona flower press. Like all Carlo Dona tools, it is ridiculously well made, and ridiculously expensive. Expensive enough to make you feel like you really have to justify it. It's rather like buying a sports car. You have to come up with the damnedest reasons to justify it. 

 But it's sooooo beautiful. And it does what it is designed to do, beautifully.

It is something of a one-trick pony - it makes flowers on the end of wire. That's it. A flower on a  wire. At least until I think of some other creative way to use it. But it does it so well. Who would belittle a pony for having only one trick? It's like the story of the talking dog - "He ain't so special, he never did any of those things ... ."

In a nutshell, you get a blob of glass on the end of stainless steel wire (I've been using 18 gauge stainless steel wire made by Artistic Wire)

The press has a slit in the side, and hole at the bottom of the cup. Hang your molten gather of glass downward, slip it into the slot, with the wire emerging from the now-at-the-top hole, and press the

 inner part of the press into the outer shell.

 Et voila! A little firepolish - whack in a stamen, and you're good to go.

Rolling the gather of glass in frit (before pressing) is a super nice effect too. Woohoo - finally - a use for all that frit!

If that description doesn't help - try checking out Loribeads video on youtube. I find I have better luck keeping the flower from being lop-sided by hanging the drop down, raising the whole thing up, and peering up to check that it is centred.

This is the largest size I could find - the 6 petal press. You know me - go big or go home!

Anyhoo - spring flowers! Woohoo!

Because I know you will ask - I got it here:

BeadPress.com - Easy to order, easy to pay, shipping was fast and it came extremely well packaged. No fuss, no muss. Very satisfied.