Who Labels Every Rod?

[ginkgoglass]

Is there a distributor who labels every rod sent out to customers? I would buy exclusively from them . . . if they have boro.

I am really bad about labels and there are many rods in my studio that I have no idea what they are. This is particularly a pain when it comes to boro as two different colors can look identical in rod form and completely different when worked.

Thanks,

[menty666]

I know it doesn't help you much when it's on the bench, but when I stash my color, unless I have the time that is, I only label 1 or two and put them in the cubby with the rest of it. Those labeled ones are the last I use.

The only time I've ever gotten color that had every rod labeled was when I ordered a moretti sampler from arrow springs. Other than that I've never seen it.

eta: just a thought....if you have colors that are visually similar, particularly through the safety glass, could you get a couple of cheap tail stock holders and label those when the rod's on your bench? Or graft on a scrap piece of clear and label that?

[ginkgoglass]

Whatsa Stock holder?

[menty666]

It looks like a roach clip on a stick :)

Check out the italian style one here: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

[mikefrantz]

Is there a distributor who labels every rod sent out to customers? I would buy exclusively from them . . . if they have boro.

I am really bad about labels and there are many rods in my studio that I have no idea what they are. This is particularly a pain when it comes to boro as two different colors can look identical in rod form and completely different when worked.

Thanks,

At Frantz Art Glass, we tag each rod of color boro. We carry Northstar and Glass Alchemy.

mike

[PaulaD]

Most of the Nortstar Boro that I sell has a tag on it. And just about every Bullsye rod has a tag on it too. I have not got around to the others yet.
Paula

[LampworkbyLori]

Oops.. wrong thread! Sorry! :-)

[lbloomer]

When I get my glass in I try to label each rod, sometimes I do fall down on that. There is always a labled rod in each cubby though. When I pull glass before I sit down to torch I check colors and lable what I pull. That way I know what's sitting on my bench. I don't mix coe's so I don't have that problem, Thank God! All of this is pobably due to my anal side, I just like to keep things neat and tidy and to me that means labled! I have not found any distributor that lables each rod, I wish there was though, would make it a lot easier for me.
Jaquetta

[nagibeads]

Flametree Glass labeled almost every boro rod I bought from them....
they are super nice people!!
:-D

[Moth]

Every single rod I've ever ordered from Paula is spotlessly clean and tagged. I've only ordered uroboros though, so keep that in mind..no boro.

[stacied]

One way my glass mentor Rich taught me to remember the color I was using is when I take out a rod from a cubby I leave a rod in that cubby sticking out a couple inches. That way when I need another rod of that color I just turn around and know exactly which one.

[mikefrantz]

Is there a distributor who labels every rod sent out to customers? I would buy exclusively from them . . . if they have boro.

I am really bad about labels and there are many rods in my studio that I have no idea what they are. This is particularly a pain when it comes to boro as two different colors can look identical in rod form and completely different when worked.

Thanks,

We prepack our 1/4 pound bundles with one tagged rod and a label that is attached to each bundle with the same information.

I asked Kathy from CIM if it were possible to have each rod in a quarter pound be tagged. Her reply was that yes it could be done. I asked how much it would cost and was told it might cost a few pennies per tag.

So I ask this question to everybody..........are there any of you that want just one rod tagged. If there is a tag on each rod, then the last two inches have a piece of paper glued to each rod which may or may not get in your way.

Since CIM is packed at the factory, this can be done at a reasonable cost, but tagging Effetre and Vetrofond would be another story.

Please let me know if every rod tagged is just the desire of a few or by many of you.

We tag each rod of borosilicate color because so many colors of boro are so close we have no idea sometimes what an untagged rod is and it turns from a $40 per pound glass to scrap very fast.

mike frantz

[echeveria]

I for one would rather tag my own than pay more unless it is just a tiny bit. I print tags for my orders when I place the order, since I am sitting at the computer anyway. When I unpack it, I tag it. I can add any info I want to the tags too, like the date I ordered it and how much it was per lb.

[FosterFire]

you can write on rods with sharpie pen, too

[lampworker1]

I tag my own rods.....each one. I use different coe's so it is a necessity. It drives my whacko to pick up a rod and find that it is not tagged.

[menty666]

I cut my full length boro rods in two for storage so I'd have to do some tagging anyway. At that point tagging 12 is no more difficult than 6.

[scootrgrl]

Since I am into sustainability somewhat, I use the leftover edges from my avery address labels (the outside edge of the sheet bit) and I use those as my labels for my rods, I label them as I take them out to use.

Janet

[StacyLynne]

Donna at the Mandrel does, Not only does she tag all coes... she cleans the glass also. Nothing worse in my opinion when glass rods are filthy and not labeled. Way to go Donna... Your the cats pajamas...

Stacy

[FosterFire]

The up-front cost to the vendor is one consideration. Then there is also the additional time before the glass is ready to be sent out. I LOVE labels, yes, but there can be hidden costs and other considerations as well.

[AlivELampworK]

labeling every rod? this would drive me crazy.

[ginkgoglass]

So I ask this question to everybody..........are there any of you that want just one rod tagged. If there is a tag on each rod, then the last two inches have a piece of paper glued to each rod which may or may not get in your way.
We tag each rod of borosilicate color because so many colors of boro are so close we have no idea sometimes what an untagged rod is and it turns from a $40 per pound glass to scrap very fast.

mike frantz

I would like each rod tagged obviously since I was the OP on this thread. It is so much more important with boro, but with all the silver soft glass out there, maybe the time has come to label all rods.

[squid]

labeling every rod? this would drive me crazy.

Bwaahahahahaha - I label all of my rods!

[AlivELampworK]

:lol:

[Karen Hardy]

No rod enters my studio without a label on it.
Since I use mostly boro, and since the same looking
rods can produce anything from green to red - they MUST all
be labeled.

I buy from a variety of people, BUT if I found a vendor
that labeled my rods for me, I would definitely switch to them
for the convenience. Even if they cost a bit more (granted,
a BIT more - not like twice the price).

[Diane (clarus)]

I would love to see every rod have a label if it didn't add anything to the cost. I have a template that I use for the 80 label sheets of return address labels, then I just cut and paste whenever I place an order so they're ready when the order arrives. There are plenty of colors that it's obvious what they are, but even some of the Precision silver colors, clear, sky blue vs. dk turquoise, and Effetre vs. Vetrofond, it's very helpful for me to have them labeled. Before I went through and did my entire stash I was always getting things mixed up.

-Diane

[Phoenix]

As a vendor - I would consider labelling rods of the market demanded.

As a user, I dislike labeled rods and would avoid that shop - the labelled rod gets left in my cubby and sneered at. I can tell how many restocks I have done by rods left to languish - I can tell batch differences that way as well. i don't like the wasted end a label leaves - I do sharpie on personal rods as needed.

[squid]

The labels I use rub off easily if I dip the end in water - which I do when I get close to the end. it works beautifully.

[bead crazy]

When I was at Frantz I talked with Pat and she said she would talk to Mike. I had talked about the opportunity to have it on the website so we could print out a sheet of labels off the website so then we could print them and label each rod at home. Then it would not cost them the time to put it on each rod and we could still do it if we wanted.
So what do you think Mike??? Maybe on the spot that the color description is at.

[mikefrantz]

When I was at Frantz I talked with Pat and she said she would talk to Mike. I had talked about the opportunity to have it on the website so we could print out a sheet of labels off the website so then we could print them and label each rod at home. Then it would not cost them the time to put it on each rod and we could still do it if we wanted.
So what do you think Mike??? Maybe on the spot that the color description is at.

Yes, we are working on that idea. I suppose that the customer could go to a spot on the online catalog and copy and past as many of the labels as they want and then then copy and paste the next stock number and then print them. Of course it is not that hard for a customer to just use Microsoft WORD and use the template and make them on their computer. themselves.

While some companies might be willing to label each rod, it becomes a big problem at Frantz. We are in the process of putting all of our thirteen inch rods into quarter pound bundles. One rod has a label and then there is a sticker with the stock number and the barcode attached to the full bundle. To have two bins for each color, one bin for all rods being tagged and one bin with only one rod bundled would mean we would have to have another 150 feet of racks holding another three hundred colors.
In the past the glass rods were all cut and without labels and there was a sheet of labels and we would peel one and stick it on one rod and then add the rest of the untagged rods to fill the order. This was time consuming. While a person just sitting and tagging and nothing else, we can tag more per hour than tagging as we go, but this slows down the process of filling orders. We then tagged a bunch of glass rods and rubber banded them together and we would pull one rod with a tag and then add it to the untagged glass, but this also took too long. We finally decided to make quarter pound bundles so that we could fill orders quickly.

If a customer wanted to pay a bit extra for having their rods all tagged and would be willing to wait a bit longer for their order to be processed, then yes it could be done.

Some have said they really do want all the rods tagged. Some say the tags catch on fire, others would pay extra for the service and some want that service for free. Many different needs and desires and I think that if a customer wants all their rods tagged it can be done. What about fireproof tags? How about tags that remove easy? How about using tags that are color coded? Pink for Effetre and blue for Vetrofond?

I hope nobody considers this a rant, cause it is not. I think that putting together a system where individual customers could print labels might work, but what about the people that do not have computers?

We could print them for our customers and let them apply them, but that takes time and time is money.

I guess the real questions is how many people want tagged rods, is it alot or just a few?

Thanks fo the thread.

mike frantz

[Lea Zinke]

I only WISH I was disciplined enough to label every rod that comes into my studio, how wonderfully organized it would be!!! Ahh, the perfect world.

However, that NOT being the case, here is what I try to do. Keep a different color of masking tape for each TYPE of glass (red for boro, blue for Effetre/Moretti, yellow for Bullseye, etc.) Walmart has alllllllll the colors. The masking tape has the advantage of being fast/tearable/easy to write on/easy to remove/leaves no residue/cheap, etc. You can write on it easily for identifying colors that you may not easily recognize, as in a striking color/colorshifting color, etc.

I find it the quickest & easiest way to try to stay on top of that issue.

HTH:waving:,
Lea

[ginkgoglass]

Ok I started a poll in the Tips section. Take a look if you want to vote.

[loco]

Mike, It sucks to be you when it comes to tagging the rods! I will tell ya, because I'm the label fire starter, that for ME I don't use the nubs where the labels would be. I toss them aside and give um away for shipping. So IF you decided to label each rod on the 1/3 cuts it wouldn't be a worry to me. I like my rods cut in halfs and can wait as long as it takes. I'm never in a rush to receive orders so I don't see that it would matter to me. Hell, three fourths of the time when I order I forget I did, so when I receive a package its like a surprise gift! :-D

If perchance I received an order from you with all rods labeled... Well I would just rip off the flag part. I suppose that if I HAD to receive labeled rods I would prefer the NS & CIM labeling (no flags). They don't readily flame on my work bench and I don't have the flag pissing off the voices in my head and my fingers.

I suppose to bottom line it I would say I could deal with it, if it made the majority happy. I'm used to my quarkey ways and if I knew what to expect, aka all rods with paper shit on um, I could work around it. So no worries here. Hell I could even put a sign up in my studio: Warning small fires on the workbench are likely to happen. Have no fear loco is here!

Ohhhhh and just so you know labels are not the only thing on my workbench that catch fire. All those damn notes I write to myself do to! So if I owe anyone something, chances are your note burned so shoot me a PM reminder!

[NLC Beads]

I like the one rod per bundle labeled, especially when ordering glass I haven't received before. Any more than that would annoy me something fierce... ;)

[BeadBlossoms]

Mike,

I can understand your concerns - Since people seem to prefer it both ways how about providing two options:

Option 1:
Add an option on the website to purchase pre-printed labels for each color at a small charge. The option of the labels could pop up when the color is ordered. You could add it into the shopping cart. That way it would be an item to be picked when filling the order. I'd be willing to buy this to save the time of doing it myself, if the price was reasonable.

Option 2:
In addition, offer a template online for those who wish to print them at no charge. As long as it would be a common avery label size the template option, it would make the free option very viable.

Then everyone is happy?

[PaulaD]

As a lampworker one rod labeled per bundle always worked for me until I got into boro and got totally confused. Especially with those welder shades on. So I labeled all of my boro rods with the Avery program on word. This is very easy and very time consuming. I have spent entire nights making labels and sticking them on my rods. I now find that I need to label the silver colors at least until I get to know them better. I also like to use all of the rod when possible.
As a vendor I agree with Tammy's post in the other thread. Getting glass out the door is already labor intensive and added labels to every single rod would only increase the cost which to me is not such a great thing to do in this environment.
Paula

[Reenie]

Not to mention the time it takes if you are a one person shop!
Yea, Yea...I had to throw that in there! But I'm easy. If a customer would want it, I'd probably do it just cuz I'm a push-over!

[zen-mom]

All silver glass that comes into my store front is labeled... I have bins of "regular" colors that people can buy individual rods that are all labeled... pre-made bundles of 1/4, 1/2. and 1# that have only one or two rods labeled. I am also one person, and I have ever charged anything extra for time and resources to label glass, it comes with the territory.

Btw, I would label all boro color if I carried it :)

[mikefrantz]

Mike,

I can understand your concerns - Since people seem to prefer it both ways how about providing two options:

Option 1:
Add an option on the website to purchase pre-printed labels for each color at a small charge. The option of the labels could pop up when the color is ordered. You could add it into the shopping cart. That way it would be an item to be picked when filling the order. I'd be willing to buy this to save the time of doing it myself, if the price was reasonable.

Option 2:
In addition, offer a template online for those who wish to print them at no charge. As long as it would be a common avery label size the template option, it would make the free option very viable.

Then everyone is happy?

I have been without internet at home since Saturday night. Now I got reception for a little bit. Option 1 and 2 are a possible. Next thing I have to do is talk to Keith and see what would work withing the limits of our software.

thanks for the ideas

mike frantz