Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Saving Leftover Beads, or Bead Cores

I've embarked on a bit of a bead science experiment, and I already have some preliminary results!


Neat vs Not Neat Beading


As you may or may not know, I'm a rather neat beader. When I'm working, I tend to keep all my bead shapes and colors in neat little piles on my bead mat. A typical example of my bead mat can be seen in the left portion of the photo below, which is what it looked like when I was weaving the third colorway of the Water Lily Windows bracelet. (For contrast, at the time, a rather famous beader was working from a bead soup on the tray to the right):


I have been known to bead messy on occasion though. The only photographic evidence of this is seen in the photo below. This is from when I wove a beaded version of an Arixtra molecule.


Saving Leftover Beads


Why am I talking about neat vs. not neat beading? Well, as a neat beader, it's relatively easy for me to sort out all of my leftover beads back into their little tubes and baggies. If I didn't naturally bead so neatly, I probably wouldn't take the time to sort them all out. I'd likely still save these beads though, perhaps as a "bead soup" for later reference into my colorway and bead choice habits.

I realized that, just because I'm a neat beader, that shouldn't stop me from saving a gram or two of leftover beads on my tray (unless the beads are too expensive, like crystals). I started doing this a few weeks ago, and I saved them in a narrow tube so that they would settle into thin, discrete layers for each project that I worked on, like an ice core. This way, I could return to this "bead core" later and see what kinds of beads and colors I was using at that time, the same way that scientists analyze ice cores from Antarctica to see what the climate looked like thousands of years ago.


Bead Core


This experiment has already yielded some preliminary results! In my current Bead Core, I can identify the beads that I used for that third colorway of the Water Lily Windows bracelet, two colorways of the Half Tila Technocluster beaded beads, and the beads I used for the basic dodecahedron beaded bead that accompanies the Half Tila Technocluster pattern. The latest beads that I added to the core are from a project that I just finished, and I hope to show pictures of it soon.


After I finish this bead core, I hope to start my next one in a longer tube such as a serological or titration pipette, as if my background in science wasn't clear enough already ;)

What kind of beader are you? Tidy? Messy? Write a comment in the comments section below!

21 comments:

  1. You are so funny! I can imagine you filling up a bunch of test tubes, putting them in a test tube holder, and mounting them on the wall as art.

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    1. That's a brilliant idea Gwen! I need to find some miscellaneous test tubes now...

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  2. Now that's pretty! and neat! As you know, I am a very neat beader, too...and I put beads back into their containers, too. The only ones that make it into a "soup box" are those that went flying through the air and got found later.

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    1. Thanks Cindy! I have one of those boxes too... Mostly for wayward crystals that I couldn't bear to throw out. A spare seed bead, on the other hand, usually falls victim to the vacuum sooner or later.

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  3. Ha! Great post and the tube idea is brilliant. My 8 inch vase does not give any striation at all. I may have to adopt your idea!

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    1. Thanks Marcia! I thought of your vase when I chose the tube for my bead core :)

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  4. A messy beader here. My wine bottle is also too large to show any striation - but I would have to separate the beads before dropping them in there, nicht wahr?

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    1. But your beads have the advantage of tasting like wine! ;)

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  5. You are so clever!! That's a great idea!

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  6. Love you and your clever mind Cindy! My Tic Tac box is a reminder but not clear record of my habits. I am a neat beader too and I hate loosing my little babies to the vacuum!

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    1. Thanks Sharon! I'd love to see a photo of your Tic Tac Box!

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  7. Great topic. I'm a neat beader, but it's relatively easy for me, becuase I guess you'd say I'm a neat designer. That is, my designs usually have a relatively small number of different kinds of beads, and where they do, it's usually a largish module of 1 or 2 beads followed by another largish module of 1 or 2 other beads. Easy to keep track of. I don't always do my beading in the best of light, so working from a "bead soup" of different beads leads to too many mistakes.

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    1. Thanks Emilie! Have you tried working with an Ott light? It gives off daylight-spectrum light that keeps the colors consistent at nighttime. They're an investment but they're so worth it. In six years, don't even think I've replaced the bulb on mine...

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    2. I've had an Ott light on my wish list for some time now, but every time I get ready to buy it, I find myself buying more beads instead. I'm sure you know how that goes.

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    3. Yeah, I totally understand! But I must say that good lighting has done wonders for my work; I've been able to color-match beads much better, and I can work at all hours instead of just during the daylight.

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  8. First off, I am a neat beader. I tend to put my seed beads back, but anything bigger than that I will toss in a small corked bottle if I only have one or two left. The bottle also contains my stray seed beads. No telling what will happen with my bead soup.

    If I make a big piece, I will gather up a sample of all the beads and put it in a 1 inch x 1 inch zip lock bag and give to the person who buys the piece. Having repaired a few antique beaded pieces I know that it is nearly impossible to find just the right bead. This is, of course, a two edged sword- am I implying that the piece will not hold up? Not at all. There are other uses for that little baggie: it is great for shopping trips when you want to find the perfect match, or if the piece needs to be resized at a later date.

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    1. That's a great idea KJ! I keep similar bead samples for my class kits and bring them with me to class. They're called "kit failure kits," just in case anyone is short on a bead or two in their kits. It doesn't happen often, but it's best to be prepared!

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  9. I love this idea. your bead 'rod' is so very lovely to see, nice colors. I am very messy and am able to completely ignore the mess to continue with more projects in between, but I don't like it. it is very chaotic. my fibrotic brain is reflected in my mess. I do clean everything from time to time. I have no problem with sorting and culling, lots of creative ideas may pop up while culling.

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