Why are Boro lampwork beads special?  You may or may not have ever seen Borosilicate (aka Boro) lampwork beads in person.  If you have not, then you must see them to believe the true beauty that they behold.  The art of working with Boro is a bit different than working with soft glass (Moretti, Lauscha, and Vetrofond) first off because of the way the actual glass is made, and second knowledge of the particular colors and flame chemistry is necessary to achieve the beautiful magical colors of Boro.

Boro is made using a number of different metals such as Copper, Silver, Manganese, Cadmium, Chrome and a few others.  Now you don't have to be a scientist to work with boro, but understanding the chemistry of the glass is imperative to making it work.  Each of the metals contain crystals that will grow within a certain temperature range, this is called "striking".  These crystals are what you're looking at when you see the colors!  Without knowledge of how to make crystals grow you will end up with "muddy" un-struck colors.  The Boro artist will need and use a lot of heat and oxygen to work with Boro.  Boro is almost 2.5 times harder than soft glass, which makes it slower to melt, therefore the artist needs to purchase a much larger torch and either an oxygen concentrator, generator, or tanked Oxygen.  Getting colors to "strike" can also be done through the annealing process by bringing the kiln temperatures up to about 1150 degrees max.  Working with Boro necessitates a lot of education, time and money, hence some of the bigger price tags per bead.

Boro color can be very difficult to photograph.  Its ethereal luminescence is really outstanding in person, but the camera tends to hide this most special quality.  When looking for Boro beads to buy, remember that the colors may vary from monitor to monitor, and in different lighting.  There really is no way to tell if you are going to get what you "thought" you were buying.  Meaning - there are artists that over edit their photos i.e.; over sharpen, over contrast etc.  When looking at a photo of beads, do they look over done to you?  Would or could those colors be true to life?  If you have any doubt at all, email the seller and ask for another photo, maybe in different lighting or with a crystal/gem color that accents the beads so you know that is the true color.  Artists that stand behind their work 100% should have no problem doing that for you.

You want to purchase beautiful high quality beads to make your designs stand out from the rest.  Being educated on what you buy is extremely important to pass on to your customers.  You can explain the details of what goes into these special handmade beads.

Have fun and enjoy your passion!