How Are 'Petals' Put in Glass Beads? 

Source of pictures: Pixabay.com

It's weekend, and the adults were all busy again, leaving Daniel and Neil at home. Daniel hadn't seen Neil for weeks. Neil seemed to have grown several centimeters in height all of a sudden, but still clingy, calling him Brother Daniel all the time. Daniel decided to make it fun, so he took out the checkers. Neil was a fast learner, but he got bored after just a few games, leaving the checkers beads rolling on the floor. Daniel saw that Neil was interested in the glass beads, so he poured out all the glass beads in the chessboard for him. Neil was crawling around picking them up. Daniel reminded him, "These are not candy. Don’t eat them."

Neil was looking around for glass beads on the floor, saying, "I know, they're hard and I can’t bite them."

Neil was having so much fun, so Daniel went back to his room and read his comic book. While he was fascinated, a crackling sound came from the living room. Did Neil hit anything? Daniel rushed out to check. Neil was holding a little hammer he found somewhere and hitting the glass beads. He said, "Can you help me, Brother Daniel? I want to see the petals in the glass beads." Daniel was a little confused. When did the glass beads have petals? He took the glass beads in Neil's hand and found that colorful stripes were wrapped in the transparent beads and looked like petals in the center of the beads. Daniel himself had never pulled out the 'petals' in the beads. He was also a bit curious, so he took Neil’s hammer and hit them with it. The glass beads broke in pieces. Neil clapped his hands in delight and picked up a fragment of it, expecting to get the 'petals' inside, but they stuck fast to the bead. "These are not petals, just some colorful stripes," said Daniel.

Neil was a little disappointed and said, "Well, how did they get in there? No, I mean why the beads have stripes inside?" Daniel had no idea, so he guessed, "Maybe there’s a mold, like the one we use to make cakes, and you put the stripes in the mold, fill it with glass, and you get these."

Neil ate cakes before, but he had never made one, and he did not understand the explanation. But he stopped wrestling with the question because he found something fun again. Daniel picked up the glass beads on the floor and looked at the brightly-colored 'petals', wondering how did they get in there anyway? If they were filled in, why the beads didn't have cracks?

Mom came home and saw Daniel staring at the checkers. She asked curiously, "Lost to Neil?"

Daniel curled his mouth and said, "Of course not. Mom, look, how are the stripes in these glass beads made? They can't be carved. The beads only have them inside, and they are so smooth outside."

"Easy," said mom, "Do you know how glass beads are made?"

"You take a big piece of glass, divide then into many small parts and polish them into smooth beads?" Daniel guessed.

Mom shook her head and said, "No. Glass is a very special material. Although it is hard, it melts into liquid when the temperature reaches several hundred degrees. It is easy to make glassware of all shapes. If you want to add strips to a glass bead, just make a pattern with colored glass and wrap it in liquid glass. When it solidifies, you’ll get a glass bead with strips."

Wow, it turned out that the glass was first melted and then patterned. No wonder there is no crack.

Author: Huang Jing