Tutorial: Fritting the Sides

Have you ever been making a frit bead and just can't get the frit on the sides? This happened to me recently and as it was for a custom order for a Memorial Glass Bead, it had to be perfect!

First the finished bead:

You can see the sides got good coverage...thanks to this technique.

Here's a before photo clearly showing the problem of the missing frit:

To me, all that white makes the bead look unfinished. I've tried scooping it on but my tool gets too hot and if I have an odd shaped bead, rolling is impossible. The simple fix would be to have a rod of the same color frit but, most frit is made of 96 and that's stuff I just don't have in rod form!  But it's still fixable!

• Take a rod of a similar color and heat it in the flame. You don't need a gather. It just needs to be hot enough for the frit to stick to the rod. 
• Roll the rod in the same frit you are using for the bead. 
• Heat and dot the frit in the gap area on your bead. 
• Don't do a bunch of dots in the same area... you want to spread the color around just as the frit would do. 
• Make sure you don't run out of frit... keep heating and dipping the rod as needed. 

•  Once you get the coverage you need, melt in and do your final shaping.

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Thank you!!! I hope you enjoyed this quick fix!