Some questions for Lowly Beaders!

B

Bogus

Guest
I was going to hijack another thread, then thought perhaps I should start a new one...

There was a "bead fair" in our town a couple of weeks ago, and I went to check it out...WOW!

I was blown away by the vast assortment, and in many cases by their incredible beauty. Some aren't cheap, are they? :)

Anyway...how hard is it to learn this craft? Can you recommend any books suitable for a rank beginner? Any other considerations before I take this up?

Thanks for any thoughts!
Bogus
 
Hi Bogus,

Before you begin on your lowly beading adventure make sure you have plenty of female relatives and friends both to give your products to and as a source for critique.

Next on your checklist should be the magazine stand of a bookstore like Borders or Barnes & Noble where you not only will find plenty of beading and jewelry craft magazines to sample but also a cozy coffee shop where you can browse through them before or instead of buying them.

When you have selected a few that most appeal to your personal style and what you would like to do, read some articles and book reviews your magazine of choice recommends.

Since you are now all wired up from your coffee and bead exposure, go to the information desk and ask whether they have any of the most interesting recommended books and where to find them. Look through the books to see which ones appeal to you best both in terms of designs and clarity of instructions. Write down their titles and buy them used from amazon.com since you will be needing a lot of money for subsequent bead and finding purchases.

You may also want to buy the one or the other of the magazines you like because all the relevant online beadstores advertise there. Do some comparative shopping, join a beaders group for tips on the things that magazines and books rarely mention like tri-cord knotters, beading boards, little plastic jars to store your beads in, how to set up and organize a project. In the magazines it always looks like Emeril Lagassi cooking, i.e. there is somebody behind the stage that chops everything needed in the right amount and puts in those little glass bowls, you know. In real life, you have to do that yourself.

Now you can compile a shopping list, leave it at home (because browsing is much more fun than list shopping), and hit the next beadshow. Adjust your project plans to your new loot, pick up the shopping list you so prudently left home where you can find it again, and buy whatever else you still need online.

Zeide
 
Oh yeah, Bogus, those bead faires will get ya!

I am just getting started too! I took a few classes at my local bead shop, knotting, basic wire, bought a few good quality tools, a couple of books, and launched! I will list book titles as soon as I unearth them, I am just getting a craft room set up.

Pattye Saab
 
Hello Bogus,

As a silent member of the Lowly Beaders Club, I will temporarily come out of hiding to give you just one piece of advice: DO NOT buy any of those super-cute lampwork beads in the shape of animals, shells or flowers because your work will rapidly go downhill and you will find yourself scanning E-bay sellers at 3 a.m. for cheap borosilicate beads of undescribable hideousness. Everything you make will start looking like swirly, polka dotted clown vomit. Then you will have to check yourself into lampwork rehab. You will also find that all your relatives will be oddly out of town during Xmas.

Slraep
 
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Hi Danuta,

I dont quite agree. O.k., great lampwork beads are addicting and I generally use them for jazzing up odd-shaped but otherwise nice pearls. Nobody has ever ducked out of town on gift-giving holidays to avoid getting any of these. The really elaborate cuties I keep for myself anyway.

Zeide
 

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Hi Zeide,

I guess it is true, rehab doesn't always work.

Slraep
 
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Hi Bogus
Welcome to the club.

That was a first-class method described by Zeide. My favorite line:

you will be needing a lot of money
Click to expand...
You will spend every spare cent you have, then more, but nevertheless you will always have something to show for it, unlike many other pleasurable pursuits.

Slraep just added some good advice, too, but it goes more to content than structure.

One big decision is what will you string your first piece on? There are many kinds of thread and wire. I strung my first couple dozen strands of beads on monofilament thread, you know, fishing lines, back during the Vietnam war?. One advantage that kind of thread has is you can just melt the tip after the knot, so no clasp is needed. Clasps are the hardest part of any bead project, in my opinion.


Beading has come a long way and so have I. I now have all the accoutrements-- the beading trays, the case for pliers and crimpers and drilling hand tools and measuring gauge and awl.. Traveling cases, stay at home storage units with many drawers. I now have about 4 thingys from the hardware store to hold nails. Probably a 100 little drawers. I personally like to store items I have a hank or more of, in those drawers. Tiny beads and beads with small numbers go in special cases with separate lift up lids for each container. Then I also have the visual aids, the bright daylight lamp, the goggles that magnify your work.... the camera. I have an entire room dedicated to beading, except my computer is in here, too. I was going to take a picture, but everything needs dusting?. Ah well, I am funky, lowly beader??.it has taken over my life now that I am an empty nester.
 
Thanks, everybody....hee hee, this does sound like fun...and potentially addicting. Uh-oh...:rolleyes:

It turns out that there isn't a craft store in my little town but there are some not too far away. I'm sort of thinking I should take a class to get started properly. I'm heading off to the bookstore now, but I'm really better at 'hands-on" instruction.

I have two adorable granddaughters I can give my 'practice pieces' to. It would be so great if I could actually make some things a grown-up would like! I'm just worried my stuff will look like they were created by a ten-year-old at summercamp....we'll see...


Thanks everybody for all the tips! I intend to refer back to them.
Bogus
 
Hi Bogus,

The best part of crafting your own necklaces is that you can simply cut them up and start over again when something does not look right anymore after a while or some "friend" (ha!) tells you your wonderful beading project stinks. I, for instance, had some abacus-shaped klonks (12-14mm+) that were just not quite enough for a well balanced pure-bred strand. Indeed, they looked very much like the Rana of Dholpur's big choker. I had some nice flowery lampwork beads, that looked a lot like those hats ladies wear to Ascot. So I decided to put them together in a pearl and bead concoction I dubbed An Ascot Affair (that's the flowery, klonky thing I also posted a picture of together with the B&B, only this shot has been retroactively "focussed"). Please note the 18k clasp:
 

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I love it! Zeide, you do such wonders with pearls. You would set Ascot on its granny-pearl-wearin' head to show up in that! It would take one of you tall gals to really carry it off.
 
not that I intend to start a lampwork beads business, but what are these beads made of?
 
OMG! They could have had a lovely baroque ss or a Freshadama necklace instead of that!!

Pattye
 
I just learned how to lampwork on vacation! Its awesome!!! Easy and time consuming! I loved it! I also bougt a beading loom so now I can ex[and my repitwiore of beading stuff even more..... LOL ...

Lampwork is making beads out of glass... for anyone interested in a good book on lampwork is Making glass beads by Cindy Jenkins.. easy to follow fo rthe movice.. like me.

Beading is easy however where do you want to start??? beaded trim? adorning cothing? Jewelry? Lampwork? Studying historical beads? Beaded flowers? Beadweaving? wire weaving with beads?

I would suggest figuring out what you want to do with beadwork.. there are many more "facets of beading" than the ones I just mentioned.. I am not by any means saying stick with one facet but pick a starting point....

It is much easier to for us to help you with books and guidance when we know what you wnat to do with your beading.


Hope this helps some


Cheers,
Ash
 
Hi Bogus!

Welcome to the club.
Yes, beading is addicting and yes, you need money to buy some decent beads if you want your pieces to sell.

You can practice though on cheap strands and give it away to kids until you perfect your craft.

Plus, every so often, you may want to keep your designs instead of selling them so you will need more money.

You may have a tendency to upgrade your materials too along the way.
I am now I'm using 14K, 18K gold and 925 silver wires, balls, and clasps and some ruby and watermelon tourmaline beads that I buy by the carat. I started from dollar a strand beads. Then If you like the upgraded pieces, you would like to keep them too so you will need more money.

And then later on, you will use freshadamas, and south sea pearls, and tahitians on your pieces, these too, you would want to keep so you will need more, more money.

I still do some lampwork pieces and currently have a stock of carved calcite flowers. There's a market for these things. They always say "Sugoi!".:D

I'm still finishing some off-shore orders so I'll post the pictures before they are sold.
 
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Wow....I think there are a lot of closet beaders around here!

(I must have lost my 'subscription' to this thread somehow....I just noticed the new additions this morning.)

Since my first love is jewelry and gemstones, it would be great if someday I could create things with natural gemstone beads and pearls. But for now I think I'll start with cheapo stuff for the kids.

Caitlin...I noticed you started a new Lowly Beaders Forum! Great idea!

I'll post pics of my first creation here...if y'all promise not to laugh! :D

Bogus
 
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Due to popular request, the gracious owner and software person of the Pearl Guide Forum through the invisible intervention of Admin suddenly produced this Forum, yesterday.

Hi Bogus
There really is a huge number of beaders using pearls and looking for pearls and gemstones, too.

Actually, getting into gemstone beads has many tiers. Even at a local bead store you can get all kinds of stone beads in wonderful colors, cheap- less than $5 a strand. the ones that look like marbles are inexpensive. Many kinds of nugget gems are cheap, amaethyst, quartz, peridot and many more in that category.
Amethysts in all shapes, Garnets and peridot continue to be relatively inexpensive in rounds, and rondells too. Add labradorite and a few other beatiful stones to this teir. Faceted rondells cost a little more. Aquamarine in rondelles and lozenges begin to creep up in price.

About this time, you decide you need to buy at less than full retail.......
then you get a simple local piece of paper called a sales license or retail license or tax license, something like that, costing $10 in AZ that says you are a jewelry retailer and buying stuff for resale. That means they will selll to you without charging the state tax, but you are responsible to do that when you sell. You also need to report if you have $0 sales.

But this license will get you in the door at the bead shows and gem shows and alll the prices will drop dramatically from retail. You can usually buy one strand at a time too. $100 will buy you enough gemstone strands to make a lot of necklaces if you stay at the low end and look for bargains.

And the whole thing keeps escalating....
 
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I can not believe those lampwork beads cost so much! the were not historical lampwork beads from the viking age or anything like that.... I am dumbfounded!


Teh best part of making my own "beaded Jewelry" is that I can get real semi precious gemstones and pearls and make what I want for daily wear. at reasonable to cheapish proces.... However, I save my good pieces for special occasions.

Just look for good quality with your beadstore pieces.. it will never be handamma grade pearls, or Flawlwss diamond or deep purple tanzanite quality, but you can sometimes get good stuff... just watch for dyed gemstones such as garnets and some jade, I have found they may tend to bleed... these are just a few tips.. also it depends on where you are located. some regions are cheaper than others..


Also Start a portfolio of things you have made. it helps if you accidentially give something away that you wnated to keep. or if one of your designs is more popular than another....

Cheers
Ash
 
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