Boro Beads | Gail Nettles

Can I Interest You in Boro?

For awhile I worked with borosilicate ("boro") glass. It's a different kind of glass from what I normally use (soda-line or "soft" glass).

Boro lampwork beads are different in many ways than "regular" glass. For one, boro is stiffer and takes longer to melt (quite awhile if you're on a Bobcat with 2 concentrators, like me). It also stiffens faster out of the flame, which is both a blessing and curse.

These days, there are a lot of glasses that can reproduce the "boro effects". The newest silver glasses can give those swirly, streaky, "oil slick" look that boro does so very well.

Still, there are days when nothing but boro will do. There are some pendant beads that I've tried to reproduce in soft glass, but they just aren't the same. For one, the optical qualities of the boro are unmatched by the soda-lime glasses. Yes, the bead is pretty with soft glass. But it's awesome done up in boro!

I don't really have any of my boro work left (sold it all, sigh), but I want to show you some work by Lori Robbins. I was honored to be a student of Lori's, where she was able to teach me more than I could have ever learned from a book or DVD. Anyway, I'll leave you with some of her work on ebay, so you can marvel at what a lovely job she does!