What do you call a fear of dots?

[janeb]

That is to say, I want them to be perfect, but everytime I try to put them on my bead, my hand starts to shake like crazy because I want them to be so perfect.

Has anyone else experienced this? How did you get over it? Or did you?

Help?!
Jane

[CO_Phantom]

I used to do that, too.

The more you practice, the more you will get the hang of it.

I also use my torch mounted marver as a hand rest for me when I'm doing my dots. It seems to help steady my hand pretty decently.

I still get shaky now and again, but I plow through, and they don't turn out that badly. And if it happens to be a day where you've had a little too much caffeine, make random dot beads! =)

-Amy

[gemsinbloom]

Yes you practice until it becomes second nature. Eventually you won't even have to think about it.

Seriously..

[CO_Phantom]

I know I always HATED hearing "practice, practice." But, really... it will help you get used to the idea of making dots, and when you don't have to think about it anymore, then you won't get nervous about making them perfect.

You'll get the hang of it!

-Amy

[baby firefly]

Janeb, I had to smile when I read this, it took me back in time....I was EXACTLY the same as you. It was as if my hand wasn't even connected to the rest of me and had a shaking life of it's own. The idea of dong dots about made me sick to my stomach. First thing....... accept that your dots aren't gonna be perfect right off the bat.!!!
Pressure OFF. Make a bead out of glass you don't really care if you ruin, say, your least favorite color. Then, just play. Get the hang of melting the stringer, touching the bead with it, and before you know it......everything will be OK :)

[Kalera]

Yes!

Also, breathe out when placing a dot. DON'T hold your breath, it will make the shaking worse! And if you don't have a wrist rest of some kind, get one, it will help SO much.

[baby firefly]

OMG, I forgot about the breathing part.....lol... glad you mentioned it Kalera !! That truly is important. I would get so wound up doing dots you'd think I was performing brain surgery.....One day soon, you will do dots and no longer think about it...it will just come...... Don't get discouraged !! And if you do, post. We'll all be here to encourage and help you:-)

[CelesteK]

LOL! My first "a-ha" moment came when I saw a picture of a dot bead in a magazine. I looked at that bead and thought--I can do that! And I did. Been making dots ever since; can always tell when I forget to breathe because I start to get dizzy...I tend to rest my elbows on my knees to steady them.

Celeste

[davelovins]

OMG, I forgot about the breathing part.....lol... glad you mentioned it Kalera !! That truly is important. I would get so wound up doing dots you'd think I was performing brain surgery.....One day soon, you will do dots and no longer think about it...it will just come...... Don't get discouraged !! And if you do, post. We'll all be here to encourage and help you:-)

This is why I love this site. No matter what, ther is always so much encouragement. I have to agree, PPP. the more you do anything in life, the better you get at it.

[pittypat]

I also don't use a stringer..I get a lot more control with a rod..it doesn't melt as fast..and I agree, steady that hand no matter what!
Pat

[lenora]

Do you have a Creation Station? Those wrist rests really help a shaky hand. My hand would always shake when I applied dots. I turn my torch down when I am adding dots. It just kind of slows everything down for me and lets me get a bit closer to what I'm doing, if that makes sense. LOL!

[AKDesigns]

I have a big piece of metal that I can rest my right hand on plus the end of the mandrel I'm holding in my left hand. That way everything is steady.

[Cassie]

I call it Tourette's of the nervous system or Parkinson's beadmaking. I start shaking when I try to do dots, too. I don't know if it's a form of stage fright or what... but it is nice to see everyone's tips on handling it!

[janeb]

I have a creation station, which works great, except when doing those darn dots. I will try the breathing, and using rods instead of stringers.

Thanks for all the good advice.

Jane

[CO_Phantom]

I also don't use a stringer..I get a lot more control with a rod..it doesn't melt as fast..and I agree, steady that hand no matter what!
Pat

That's how I did dots for the LONGEST time, too! I did so much better with that full rod. I don't know what made me finally switch to using a stringer, but now I don't know how I did it with a full rod! :lol:

-Amy

[CO_Phantom]

I have a creation station, which works great, except when doing those darn dots. I will try the breathing, and using rods instead of stringers.

Thanks for all the good advice.

Jane

Don't be afraid to get right in on the flame, too. I mean...obviously not close enough to set yourself on fire, but the closer you can get to your work, the more control you will have over that glass.

-Amy

[FourTailsLampwork]

Middle dip that mandrel! Then rest the near end of the mandrel against the heel of the hand you're using to place the dot. And, as Kalera said, breathe out as you place the dot.

[Elizabeth Beads]

Commercial stringer is really nice for white dots, especially CiM Peace.

[Angie09]

I have a big piece of metal that I can rest my right hand on plus the end of the mandrel I'm holding in my left hand. That way everything is steady.

Any chance you could take a pic of that set up Amy? Sure would be appreciated here in "dot land"

[AKDesigns]

Any chance you could take a pic of that set up Amy? Sure would be appreciated here in "dot land"

Sure. I've been meaning to do that anyway and put it up on my blog.

[Flamin' Francesca]

If you can get a copy of her DVD, watch the Queen of Dots Kristina Logan. She makes her dots with a whole rod instead of stringer. I took a class with her and found it was the answer for me, but of course, your results...

[houptdavid]

TRYPOPHOBIA :lol:



If you want to PPP dots...use the same color stringer as the base! Start small, melt to round, apply dots, repeat.

[AKDesigns]

First......:lol: Now I remember why I hadn't taken these pictures yet. It really is organized chaos.


Here's the piece of metal. It was actually part of the packing material when my husband purchased a bumper for his truck. You can see it's about the same height as my torch.
196864

A few images in action. My right hand is resting on it and so is the end of the mandrel.
196865

196866

You can see in this picture that I only have to move over about an inch to the right of the flame.
196867

[tammydownunder]

Not only is a good hand rest helpful, but my dots really improved when I got magnifying glasses. I have multifocals but they weren't enough so I went to regular glasses with clip on diddies and, in front I wear a pair of +2.5 el-cheapo reading glasses. (photo by Sarah Hornik)

[Angie09]

Thanks Amy! The pictures are really helpful ... gives me alot to think about and maybe change my station a little.

[houptdavid]

Damm Amy those are heavy duty!

[CO_Phantom]

That is an awesome rest, Amy!

No chance of breaking that!! ;) now...to see if anyone in my family is gonna order a bumper any time soon! :lol:

I've seen stuff that kind of looks like that somewhere in the shed...I will have to look around to see if I can find it now.

-Amy

[divelement]

I hate clowns. They scare me. Not sure it helps but I had to say it.

[FishBulb]

Amy, I was surprised to see you had presses! I can't remember seeing pressed beads from you before -- or maybe I have, but didn't realize they were yours. :lol:

Tammy: That was you! I remember seeing that picture ages ago and I couldn't remember who that was. I did laugh, but only because I'm in the same age group and will be doing the same thing very very soon. In fact, I bought my first pair of reading glasses today.

And Jane, yes, I'm quite good at dots but I still get stage fright with the initial "anchor" dots. I just tell myself, "It's just glass, you only have five minutes invested in this bead so far, if you wreck it, no biggie". Personally I would be scared to death of wrecking a bead that has cost me an hour of my time thus far.

I also found it very helpful to have my bench set-up as it is. The top of the bench is chest height while I'm standing, and the torch flame is at eye level for me. Doing dots has never been easier.

I agree with the advice that you put on your dots while you exhale, and also with the idea that the full rod somehow works better than the stringer; maybe the full rod absorbs more heat so the molten tip doesn't ball up like a skinny stringer will. That's my findings, anyway.

I remember a couple of weeks ago, I was starting a fairly large commission that all had a substantial amount of dots, all of fairly pricey and rare glass. The first bead freaked me out terribly but I just kept working and they all turned out awesome.

[AKDesigns]

Amy, I was surprised to see you had presses! I can't remember seeing pressed beads from you before -- or maybe I have, but didn't realize they were yours. :lol:



I use the presses all the time! I'm a Zoozii press freak. I've just been making a lot of bhb's lately though so that's probably why you didn't realize I used them.

[FishBulb]

Oh! Well, I'll have to keep an eye open for pressed awesomeness from you then. :D Yes, I'm most familiar with your BHBs.

ETA: Oh yeah, I see them in your Etsy shop! Fantastic work!

[CO_Phantom]

On a side note...

I did find those pieces of iron that looked like Amy's out in the shed. They were from equipment shipping (my brothers work for farm equipment dealerships). And they ended up as supports for my glass rack that my brother is welding for me... :lol:

Guess I'm not going too nuts, I knew I'd seen something like them out there!

-Amy

[MJ]

I don't have any extra set-up on my bench and I have done a ton of dots! The technique I use is to tuck my elbows in TIGHT to my sides and work high in the flame. If I get too low in the flame the glass gets away from me. If I am shaky, I just do something else for a while until I get warmed up, and then my hands settle down!

A fat 2mm stringer is my favorite "appliance" unless I need really big dots for some reason.

[bexrox]

The idea of dong dots about made me sick to my stomach.

Yeah, they gross me out too!

:shock:

[GlassMigrations]

I've been making beads for a couple of years now and I know exactly what you mean about getting the shakes. It was really bad when I first started. Once I got my torch marver it really helped me a great deal. I could steady my hand better resting it against the marver. I also later discovered, on accident, the presses I have with the knobs worked great. I could rest the lower part of my arm on the top of the wooden knob while my hand could rest on the torch marver. I found stringers harder to work with at first. Use the size up from a stringer until you feel you are doing pretty good with the larger size rod. To this day I still get the shakes on occasion. For myself, I have learned never to start my day in the studio making beads with dots. I first start out with making a couple of beads that don't require much more then making them round. Once I feel relaxed, only then I will attempt the dot beads. I practiced making dots over and over until I finally got the feel for it. It didn't take too terribly long. Don't worry, you will get there!!!! Hang in there!!!