Well, I figured it out!  I got me beads freed from their toothpicks.  A few minutes of heat from the heat gun did it!

I went to http://www.glassattic.com and read all that I could on varathane.  I found that when you heat varathane that the bubbles that can form in it usually will disappear.  I thought that I would try heating the beads and then pulling the toothpicks out.  I really did not want to put the beads and styrofoam block into the clay oven so I tried the heat gun.  At first I brunt some of the toothpicks and then pulled the beads off.  It worked!  I also had luck with using less time on the beads with equal success.  (Just becareful of burning you fingers.)

Here are the beads.

  I really like them and now have to figure out how to string them.

Posted by Helen in Tips and Techniques on August 2nd, 2007 | No Comments