This course is not open for enrollment

Hollow Lentil Beads

Learn how to create beautiful beads from silver sheet

About the Class

Take your soldering skills a step further and learn how to create beautifully textured hollow beads that are lightweight, tactile, and wonderfully versatile. These elegant beads can be used in earrings, bracelets, pendants, and many other jewellery designs once you’ve mastered the technique.  

In this class, you’ll start with flat sheet silver and transform it into strong hollow forms, learning each stage step by step along the way. As the finished bead shape adds strength, relatively thin silver sheet can be used, making this a very cost-effective project despite the impressive size of the finished beads.

The class covers everything from texturing, cutting, and shaping the silver through to soldering and finishing the beads, as well as ideas for how to use them in future designs. I also include extra tips for getting the best results when texturing sheet metal with a rolling mill, helping you create beautifully detailed surfaces with confidence.

This is a satisfying project that looks much more complicated than it really is and is a lovely way to build confidence with hollow forms and more controlled soldering.

A safety note: please do watch all of the soldering information before soldering the beads closed.

The Hollow Lentil Beads class is part of the Jeweller's Bench Membership - click here for more details.

If you need any extra help as you work your way through the classes do join us over on The Jeweller's Bench Café group over on Facebook - the perfect place to ask for advice and to show off what you've been making.

You will need:

Materials:
sheet metal large enough to cut two discs per bead, 0.5mm to 0.7mm thick

Equipment: (all the jewellery making kit listed here can be used for many different projects) Soldering kit - see here for more details
Disc cutter
Doming block and punches (wooden punches if you are texturing the sheet)
Heavy hammer for disc cutter and doming block
Texturing tool - possibilities are rolling mill, hammers, texture punches
Steel bench block and leather cushion (or folded tea towel!)
Needle files
6" flat files
Bench drill
Sharpie
For polishing - pendant drill/flexishaft attachments or a silver polishing cloth. Best not to put in a tumbler as the shot could get inside the beads!

An explanation of all the tools and materials that you need is included in the videos, and a downloadable equipment and materials list is available with the class.

I've used the Scattered Daisies and Barcelona Beads 1 rolling mill patterns found here on the example beads, but they are just as beautiful left smooth, hammered or decorated with texture punches.

2 hours 11 minutes long, 16 lessons


Course Curriculum

Reviews

"Another excellent class from Joanne Tinley. Hollow forms have been on my  list for a while, and this has given me the incentive (and the knowledge) to get cracking."
Dawn G.
"I love these beads! Much easier to make than I thought they'd be. Like the rolling mill tips too."
Sara P.
"Great class with very clear instructions."
Diana H.

Legal Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to show safe working practices and to discuss health and safety aspects of jewellery making, but in the end I cannot take responsibility for how the tutorial information is used and how safely you work. Take the effort to set up your work area safely right from the start!
All Rights Reserved. No part of this course may be reproduced or shared without express, written consent from the author.

Joanne Tinley

Tutor and Founder of The Jeweller's Bench

The Jeweller's Bench is run by Joanne Tinley. She has been making her own jewellery for as long as she can remember and left her first career as a school teacher to set up business as a  jewellery designer and tutor nearly 20 ago. She is
self-taught and like many people started with wire and beads. Learning how to solder, however, opened up a whole new world of jewellery making,  one that she is keen to share!

© 2026 The Jeweller's Bench