Uber fine stringer decorations?

[scoutycat]

Does anyone have any tips for super fine stringer decorations - like anastasia, dora schubert and jc herrell do. I get lumps and blobs, or broken stringer when I try @@ I've been following the directions from Corrina's book, staying out of the flame moving the bead instead of the stringer etc. Any thoughts? - jen

[AKDesigns]

Honestly it really is a matter of practicing. Once it clicks it clicks. I work just under the flame when I do stringer work. You need to find the spot where you are just warming the stringer up enough to make it pliable but not melt it. It becomes second nature once you get it.

[LyndaJ]

also, the uber skinny can be applied most easily in straght lines. That's how you see theirs most often.

You can give the bead surface a good heating, and with the hair thin stringer, you can just heat one end of the stringer to attach and then just kind of "stick it" to the bead surface in straight lines and then melt it in WAY out at the end of the flame.

[Firebug]

Some folks encase their stringer with clear or another transparent color. This makes a thicker stringer, but when applied and melted in, gives the appearance of very thin stringer because all you see is the stringer and the clear has melted and blended into the base bead.

Hope this makes sense! Corina's book explains how to encase stringer if you've never done it.

Cheers
Kathy

[SuzyQ]

With the uber fine it is also important to move the bead and not the stringer. Think about the bead being your heat source to melt the stringer instead of the flame.

[KEW]

I can never even hold the darn fine stinger without it breaking in my hand! Usually just as I am about to or have placed it on the bead. Think I'm tense or something?

[scoutycat]

I do that too, KEW. There's so much to think about, I get concentrating on where the bead, stringer & heat is and then the stringer snaps @@ argh! lol ppp I guess...

[Karen Hardy]

My favorite "trick" is to NOT use superfine stringers.
Use regular sized stringers.

Heat the tip of the stringer to form a small blob and
touch it to the bead. Then instead of "laying" it down, you
PULL the stringer and it BECOMES a superfine stringer.
You lay THAT down and you have superfine straight lines.

Obviously, this has to be done fairly quickly, since the thin
stringers cool fast and you have to pull them and lay them down
while they are still molten and the bead is still hot enough to stick.
Practice, practice, practice.
Try doing it on a plain bead using stringers of different colors
for a while till you get the hang of it.

[lindag]

Karen, I do that too or sometimes I will attach the blob to the mandrel near the bead and then pull the stringer over the bead.