Letting Go or Giving In--Lampworkers' Thoughts, Please?

Karen, Although I'm a fuser, I can totally relate to your problem. Right now I'm packing up dichro pendants to sell at the Bead Bazaar, and several are calling my name. I think you should keep the ones you want I always have trouble trying to duplicate a design.. Patti

Karen, You are most definitely *not* the lone nut case. I'm right there with you. I made a really cool bicone bead, ivory base, the new copper green trails, silver wire over that. I loved that bead, but I had a show to do, so I priced it, took it along and put it out. It made it most of the way through the first day before anyone picked it up to look at it closely. I *knew* I was in trouble when I was standing there, secretly hoping that person wouldn't buy it!

After she left, I decided that that bead just spoke to me too loudly to part with, and I pulled it from the sale table. It's now made into a necklace, and at least for now, it's MINE!

Lois

My take is: When beads talk to you, listen.

What happens next is in the lap of the gods.

Deirdre

When I asked the PMC teacher about pricing, the last thing she said was, "and if it's something you really want to keep, add a zero, before you put it out." That is, price it at 10 times what you normally would.

Tina

Karen, you are not a nutcase at all. I fight with this impulse all the time. I know how my beads would look in my *own* designs, and I often really want to do something with them. I have a hard time keeping my hands off! :)

I like this idea!

Deirdre

I'd add two zeros - just to make sure! hehe

Suedo (like "pseudo", though I'm no phony baloney!)

Personally, I am jewelry retarded. When I try and make a finished piece, it looks like crap to me. So, I have this necklace of unrelated beads strung on a piece of hemp & tied in a knot in the back (very professional - LOL). It started out as cull beads that were too bad to sell, but too good to throw away. The theory was no one would look at the individual beads. But lately I have been putting beads that "talk to me" on it. I get a lot of compliments for it. And it is like a portable catalog of my styles.

On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 4:15:52 -0400, Louis Cage wrote (in message ):

Here's a secret for you guys who think you're "Jewelry retarded," and still want to showcase a lampwork bead.

Get 6 mm druks in either Black or Clear. Matte finish or shiny, it doesn't matter. Get two pieces of matching Bali (or Bali-type) silver: bead caps, fat spacers; it really doesn't matter. Put a split ring on the end of a length of stringing material and add a crimp to hold it in place. Then string the 6 mm druks until the necklace is half as long as you want it to be. String one Bali bead, the lampwork bead, then the other Bali bead. Now string the other half of your druks, as many as you strung on the other side of your necklace. Finish by adding a clasp to the opposite end.

The necklace will be beautiful, and will really show off the lampwork bead. Later, once you get bored with the simple druks+bead method, you can add more Bali, or branch out to crystals and other techniques.

BTW, I want to give props to all our talented beadmakers here in the group. I was browsing through Ebay this evening, looking for pendants and I started looking at the lampwork section. Boy, there is some seriously fugly lampwork out there! There are nice beads, but one whole heck of a lot of dreck as well. I'm so happy I have an "inside connection" to the talented beadmakers in this group!

Kathy N-V

Fab idea, Kathy! There *is* a lot of crap on eBay lately. I try so hard not to be a snob when it comes to lampwork - I am very picky - but it's hard not to groan when looking at the eBay auctions lately. There are over 6000 listings in the handmade lampwork category. Only a third of them have the word "annealed" in the description. (Of course there are a lot of listings that aren't lampwork at all, but I won't go there). I am not about to go into beginner vs. sellable beads, because I was a beginner once, and that is a debate I have already had too many times. I will say this though - lampworking gets more and more mainstream every single day. Is that good? Well, in some ways and in some ways it's not so good. It does keep me on my toes to keep making my lampwork beads the best I can, and to keep trying to add to my skill set, while still letting the artistic side speak. It gets tough sometimes - especially when it's freaking hot outside! :D today I am torching at 3am and sleeping in the daytime.

I wonder how many bead artists do this? I just thought it was another Asperger's thing..LOL! When people ask for a special order, I'm very careful to have the right mood and music playing whilst I work on it. Evalynne

Just want to point out here that while associating actions or events with pieces of music may be something that Asperger's people do, the reverse is not necessarily true. I think virtually anyone who really likes and notices music is likely to have "musical triggers" which remind them of certain things. Mine goes both ways -- I can often place the dates of pop songs from my high school and college days *very* precisely by remembering what I was doing when I listened to them. And the number of situations and phrases which trigger filk lyrics is positively frightening! (At least, to people around me... hehheh.)

Celine

Okay, now I'm curious. What were you playing when you made my indicolite-colored set? (Which, BTW, I *still* haven't gotten made up -- I tend to work on stuff for sale first. When I do get them done, I *will* send you a picture!)

Celine

That sounds really cool. Now I will ask the obvious question: Can we see?

Deirdre

When I went to a couple of bead shows here in Portland this month, Genny asked me if I was in the market for lampwork there, since I have talked about that style of bead with pleasure and admiration. I said my favorite lampworkers were here on the newsgroup, so I had all the sources I wanted in that department. I was looking for other things.

And that turned out to be entirely true. I saw things that I would say were very good lampwork, but none I liked better than the constantly evolving and developing work of our rcb clan.

Deirdre

Sounds like a very practical strategy, if you have the option...

Deirdre (who is a nightowl who has turned astonished early riser, for the sake of a bit of time with my hardworking dear one, who gets up a bit after 5 for her 'day job', and often isn't done with her second career (seeing clients at home) until 8:30 at night.

Normally, I am the sort who only sees dawn on my way to bed. What has come over me?

Deirdre

:) I have no idea what Apserger's is, but I do love wonderful music when making beads. Tocrhing has a wonderful rhythm to it that music goes along with. It's hard to explain, but I am sure other lampworkers and artists of different mediums can understand what I mean. I can't make beads without music.