Lampwork the fine Art of glass bead making

First let me say that the biggest difference between imported lampwork beads and artisan lampwork beads is QUALITY.

Lot's of times (ok most of the time) imported beads are not annealed. What is annealing you say.

Well once you heat glass to a molten form you have sped up the atoms of the glass. If you let these atoms slow down too fast there can be all kinds of small stress fractures in the glass that you may not even see. To make the glass more stable after the bead is made it is put in a hot kiln and the processes of cooling is slowed down to a rate that makes the glass harder and less likely to fracture.

Now this is not saying that if you took that great glass bead you got from one of your favorite artists' and threw it against the wall it wouldn't break. More than likely it would.
But it shouldn't break just from picking it up. Some of the import beads that I have had has done just that!
Could you imagine making this huge jammin' necklace and selling it to some one for $100's of dollars only to have it fall apart because they got into a hot shower with it on? (didn't happen to me but it has to others) What if that same person then got hurt on that necklace. If that customer was injured what do you think that could do to your reputation as a jewelry designer?

Then there is the fact that imported beads are not cleaned before you get them. That means that bead release( what lampworkers use so the glass doesn't stick to the metal mandrel) is still in everyone of those little beads. That means you have to clean all those little suckers out. Or leave it. But that is heading for a mess later.
Some believe that bead release can be caustic. I personally don't know what is in imported beads' bead release so I'd rather clean them out then resell in my work. This is time consuming and just a regular pain in the butt.

Lampwork artisans' pride themselves on clean beads. There are hundreds of ways these artists have found to best clean a bead.They know how bad it is to clean them and would never leave that to a bead customer.

The next reason not to buy those import beads. A lot of the workers who make these beads are not making them in the safest conditions. There has been a big rash of people who have gotten sick from making gemstone beads with out the proper safety equipment.
You can read about that here.

These people are only getting paid $75 - $100 a month to make those beads. That way they can keep the cost down and profit up. If they refuse to work under these conditions then they simply fire them and find someone else.

Find out for yourself.HERE
By buying imported anything from China you are helping these factories to keep treating these people this way. It really isn't worth the price to make these people ( alot of whom are not even old enough to vote in our country) pay the price.

Buy from a reputable Fair Trade dealer or even better buy American.
Now I know as well as you, you can't buy everything American anymore. So do what you can. Every little bit helps.

More about Fair Trade Companies
HERE
and
HERE

Just want to add. Most lampworkers have no problem with the imported stuff at all. There is a market for every bead out there really.

I am more offended by these so called lampworkers who supposedly own a studio and have hundreds of artists who make beads for this owner. He says they are annealed, cleaned, and artisan made when in all actuality they are imports and should be advertised as such. You know who you are.
I would more than likely buy some beads from someone when they are up front about what they are offering.
Not lying and trying to pass something off that it's not.
It's like calling a drawing by me a Michaelangelo.
It just isn't right. It rubs me the wrong way no matter how you look at it.

and in the famous words of Forrest
"that's all I have to say about thaat"