Friggin dots

[dragonfly designs 56]

OK, Yes, I have the dots book. I cannot, for the life of me, make a round bead, with the bubbles on it all the way around without totally distorting the bead. am I using too much glass? they end up all lopsided.....love doing amys s torm tutorial, but without these basic skills, its really hard!!!

[wendbill]

Might be the way you're melting the dots in. Try and melt them down one at a time.

Being as even with as possible with the spacing, and trying to put the same amount of glass on for each dot also helps.

[lonerp]

Maybe you are working too hot? Going slooow I think is the key word; you only want to melt in the dot and not get the whole bead soopy.
Good luck.

[Otter's Flame]

Sounds like a heat control issues.

Otter

[KarenBeth]

To get your base bead round and not wobbly first you need a good footprint. Some pointers that were told to me in the past is when you first do to put the glass on the mandrel, you should be continually turning ur mandrel as you apply. Like, don't turn, stop the mandrel to apply the glass and continue turning. You have to keep your mandrel spinning as u apply. Do one wrap around. Then your first disc will be more even. For me, this is hard, its not always perfection and I still get a tiny wobble. You should be working your bead below your flame, with just the edge of the bead flashing in the flame as u turn. I have to keep looking over to the side of the flame to make sure I'm not accidentily in the flame. Add little bits of glass until ur mini footprint bead is even. Then once, you have ur even base bead, its easy to apply dots from there to keep em even.

To apply dots, the bead should not be in the flame. work on the side, warm the spot ur applying the dot, ball up ur stringer in the size dot u want and then apply. I like doing my dots in 4's and 8s to make sure i have them even. Do one, do 1/4 turn, ur first dot will be at the top, apply, another 1/4 turn and so on. Its easy to see the distance this way.

Hope this makes sense.

[Jody Lee]

Sounds like your base bead might be too warm. Let it set up, and apply the dots in the side of the flame. I often apply dots by getting a tiny gather on the end of the rod, placing it on the bead, and then coming near the flame and then flame cutting.

[TinaJ]

I agree that it is probably a heat issue. It sounds like your base bead is too hot when you apply your dots so your bead is drooping when you apply the dot. Slow down and don't put on a dot until the bead 'clinks' when tapped with your knife or against the marver. Then heat and apply like Karen Beth said.
Heat spot. Apply dot. Turn bead. Repeat. :cool:
Tina
ps. Hold the mandrel any which way you need to in order to place the dot against the bead at a right (or close to that) angle. You will get better dots if you can apply the glass at the same angle no matter what side of the bead you are working on. Sometimes my mandrel is almost straight up when applying dots to the left side of my beads.

[Lisi]

Kelly,

Try using 12" mandrels and make the beads in the middle of them. This way you can add dots down the middle, then on one side, and to do the other side, you flip the mandrel over. It is an AWESOME trick! You can get them even and it's much easier for most! If you have Kate Fowle Meleney's first video, this is the technique she uses for all of her beads, not just dotty ones.

There are several ways to dip mandrels to get the release in the middle. My favorite is to have bead release in a tall jar, like an olive jar. Or it can be plastic. You don't have to have this jar full. All you have to do to get the release up to where you want it which is just past the middle (7-8" inches up), is to tilt the jar on its side. With it tilted and the release is up to the rim, dip and you will have release covering a couple of inches past the middle of your mandrel.

You don't want all that release on the one end and it's wasteful, but there is a way to have that side clean and you can reuse the excess release later! You need another tall jar filled with about 4-5 inches of water. Preferably glass, so you can see what you are doing and the water level. Dip the covered end in and gently swish and the release will rinse off leaving the 2-3" of release on your mandrel. Take it out of the water, wet end down, and carefully wipe rinsed side with a cloth or paper towel. Poke the rinsed and dried end down into your mandrel holder, whether that would be sand, cat litter, rice, fish tank gravel, etc. That end should be kept downward and not the other way around because any miniscule droplet of water from the rinsing could slide down into the bead release and make it crack later. ;)

The bead release that settles to the bottom of the water rinse jar can be reused. Get enough in there, pour all the water off, and there it is. I scrape it out with a long spoon and put it back in my bead release jar.

Hey, should I re-write this as a tutorial with pictures?? Free of course, and I wouldn't be able to get to it for a bit, because I have to get an olive jar...haven't done the MOM technique for a while. :)

[tela]

ok, no one has said it, so I will...
PPP. Practice persistence and patience.
As you said, without the basic skills it is hard.
Try making 50 dot beads. By the end, i guarantee you will be better at it!
It's really the only way.
Try thinking about the process, not the result.
jo

[dragonfly designs 56]

shit, thats the problem, ive made over 50 dot beads, im not very good at learning from my mistakes, im one of those stupid people that keep doing the same thing and getting different results. I agree, i need to use less heat, that is why my bead is getting so out of control. cant wait to practice some more with these tips! to melt your dot in, do you hold it way out in the flame and melt it ever so slowly? i think im also using too much glass, i look at the beads online, and their huge, i did notice my small beads are much better..



ok, no one has said it, so I will...
PPP. Practice persistence and patience.
As you said, without the basic skills it is hard.
Try making 50 dot beads. By the end, i guarantee you will be better at it!
It's really the only way.
Try thinking about the process, not the result.
jo

[kandice]

Keep in mind that some colors just don't work well when layering dots. Any color that has any kind of reaction (bleeding, spreading, etc.) is not really a good one to practice dots with. I recommend using a good, stable black as your base and practicing with one of the many corals out there or with opaque periwinkle. Those colors are pretty stable when it comes to melting in dots.

Also, work slightly cool, start with small dots and take your time.

[PerfectDeb]

i found when i started that i had my flame too big and hot - it meant i had to work riiiiiight out there.

turn the flame down, your little cones shouldnt be any longer than maybe 5mm

wind your glass on, try for thumbnail size beads to start off with, get the whole bead good and molten then take it out of the flame and spin slowly, it WILL round up.

once you get it round, keep twirling it out in the far reach of the flame to keep it hot while you grab your stringer. holding it below the flame (twirling twirling) touch the tip of your stringer to make a little ball and touch it to the bead, move the bead and stringer quickly back to the flame to cut the stringer off, twirling twirling but not too fast or you throw your hot dot sideways (had a lot of those till i figured THAT one out!)

the trick is to take your time, you can twirl that bead in the outer flame to keep it warm while you think or take a breath - i find i screw the bead up if i try to work too fast

i made these when i'd been lampworking a few weeks, i got so hooked i made nothing but dot beads for months!! :lol:

[PerfectDeb]

oh and poked beads

make your base bead, let it solidify then spot heat just one little spot, poke quickly, then do the opposite side and so forth, go back and put a generous dot of clear over each poke then put it back in the flame and GRADUALLY reheat the whole bead

patience is the key