How to blow shards for lampwork beads

The below is a pictorial on how to blow shards. Shards are used on lampwork beads in various ways. I like them much better than frit because it doesn’t pit my beads. Many times if you use different COEs on a bead, pitting or incompatibility occurs. By using the shards in the same COE, it greatly decreases those issues.

The below is the second pic in the series...this is show heating the stainless steel hole tube. I heat the edge so that the glass will stick. This is done without any bead release.


The below is the first pic in the series. Lay out cane and some sort of fire proof container. Something that is large enough to hold about the size of your fist.