Hulk Hogan in 10 EASY Steps.

Our Southern Flames lampwork beadmaking group had a monthly challenge to make a "Macho" bead in honor of Fathers Day.

I thought about this for awhile and wondered what I wanted to do. There are a lot of shapes and items that come to mind, but quite honestly, I don't think "macho" both in color or style is really my thing. (periwinkle and aqua aren't exactly macho colors)

Luckily, I was saved by www.msn.com. Who knew? There on the front page was a story about Hulk Hogan. Perfect I thought. Here's an overly muscular guy who bleaches his hair blonde, does the fake bake suntan thing, and has bulging muscles. Perfect for my parody style. So away I went. And here's how to make your own Hulk Hogan bead, just in case you've been yearning for one and don't want to buy mine, which is in my lampwork bead Etsy shop.

Hulk Hogan Mini Tutorial in 10 Easy Steps

1. make a wide barrel bead out of dark ivory, or as I used, one of the flesh shades from CIM glass.
2. flatten it, and gently marver in both ends to add a little facial definition.
3. swipe a small band of white where the teeth go. Don't worry about perfection, because you're going to frame it with his moustache.
4. wrap lapis blue around the top part of his head a couple of times and keep it partially rounded for his bandana. (don't add the tails in the back yet.)
5. mix yellow and white to make a pale yellow glass. Heat both ends really hot and keep smushing together and pulling apart and smushing some more. Make sure you get it really hot before you pull it out and gently cool a bit and then pull it out into thick stringer. Don't want air bubbles in it.
6. Using the cooled thick soft yellow stringer, swipe vertical stripes onto the back of his head for hair. Turn the bead over and make an upside down "U" over his white teeth to form his moustache.
7. Add two large dots of black for his sunglasses. While still warm, pull the outer edges up and out to form the glasses. Add a small thin strip around the side of his face for the sunglass arms and heat both dots to the center to bring it across to join the dots.
8. Add a small dot for his nose. Spread it out a bit for nostrils and add two small indentations for his nostrils.
9. Add dots for his ears and indent to shape them.
10. Add two small swooshes to form an upside down "v" with his blue bandanna glass to the back side to show where it was tied.