Basic Pendant Tutorial by Chad Trent - Soleil et Lune Designs

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Start with a rod of color. For this demo, I'm using Glass Alchemy Peacock Chameleon, but you can use any color, soft or hard glass.
Gather up a ball of glass about twice the diameter of the rod.
Gently flatten the ball on a graphite pad. Flame polish the surface you just flattened.

Pay no attention to how messy my workbench is...

Prepare a punty. I usually use clear. I'm out of smaller diameter clear, so I have to make due with what I have by heating it up and rolling it on the graphite to taper the diameter.
Punty up to the flat side with a cold seal. Let the colored glass cool a little. You want the clear to be hot, but not dripping hot. I usually put it in the flame for a few seconds so it glows pretty brightly, take it out, blow on the end, and then attach it.
Burn off the colored rod.
Heat just the tip of the leftover glass and keep rotating until the pendant starts to round out.
After rounding. Just using flame and rotation for rounding... no molds.
This step is optional. I just decorated it with dots of clear.  You can draw on it with stringer, roll it in frit, leave it plain (who can actually do that?) or whatever you want.
Melt the decoration in.  Be careful to heat only the surface, and not let the flame get on the punty seal. If you do, it will be more difficult to remove the punty.
After it has cooled a little.
Punty up to the face of the pendant, then break off the punty on the back. The trick is to break off the back punty while the front is still warm and glowing slightly.  That makes sure the one you want to come off actually does.

The way I break off a punty is by tapping it on my torch. If you aren't comfortable with that yet, lay the pendant down on a graphite marver, and tap the punty with a pair of tweezers. It shouldn't take much force at all.  If you have to hit it hard, the punty has gotten too hot.  If that happens, the best way to remove the punty is to melt it off like you did earlier with the colored rod.

Flatten the back, then flame polish.
Set it aside. Don't worry, it will be fine. No need to put it into a kiln.

Again, pay no attention to the mess in the background...

Make a small bead on a mandrel.

This is going to be your loop.  There are many different ways to make loops, but this is the easiest for someone just starting out, and takes the least amount of time. Plus it's easy to get consistently sized loops.

I TRIED TO GET A PICTURE OF THIS, BUT IT REQUIRES TWO HANDS TO DO, AND I WAS TAKING THE PICTURES MYSELF, SO I COULDN'T DO IT.  SORRY. At this point, you heat just one side of the bead, and the edge of the pendant until they both glow and get soft.  Then push them together. They should be hot enough so that they flow together when they touch. Let it set up a few seconds, then gently pull the mandrel away from the pendant.  This will smooth the joint where the loop joins.
This is what you should have now.
Break off the punty and flame polish the mark left by the punty.
I re-heated the joint to straighten the pendant.
The finished pendant ready for the kiln.