Same size beads

[penny5658]

Hi
I am having a great deal of trouble making beads the same size :idea: . Is there something I could mark my rods with that would not discolor the bead? Maybe a marker? If anyone has any ideas for me todo this I would appreciate any and all suggestions.
Thanks much
Penny :waving:

[SuzyQ]

PPP. Give yourself a warm up ritual of making multiple spacers on a mandrel. I spent the first 6 months using up one rod of glass at the beginning of each session on just spacer beads. I first managed two to a rod then worked up to 6. It is easy to make all 6 the same size and the more you do it the better you get at eyeballing the following beads.
The other trick I have used it to have a bead the size I want handy to compare to what is on the rod.

[grace edwards]

Hi Penny,

What I do is use a caliper. When I'm making a set where I want the beads all about the same size, I measure the base bead to make sure it is a certain size before I decorate. I can eyeball it pretty well for the most part - but the caliper keeps me on track.
/grace

[kimberly]

The above suggestions are really good. If you still want to mark your rods, a Sharpie permanent marker works. The heat from the torch burns off the marker with no problem.

[Rebekah]

And if you wanna make really round beads that are all the same size, you can use a marble mold.

This is a fun exercise. At least it was for me.

Rebekah

[SuzyQ]

That does sound fun Rebekah. Besides I want one of those mold for my bottle stopper tops. I'm getting impatient waiting for the bead to get rounds when I am such a press kind of gal.

[Cosmo]

I count how many wraps around the mandrel I go when adding glass. Doing it the same for each one usually results in beads pretty close to the same size. Of course, I very rarely make sets, so mine might not be the best advice...

[Lisi]

I get asked this question all the time, so here's my best advice:

First off, PPP is the most important! I would practice plain spacers, that's what I did. ;) :D

This is what I do: I make my small footprint bead and get that shaped up well. That is your base for a well shaped bead with nice holes. Then I count "wraps" of glass, depending how big I want the bead to get. The wraps are the single "drips" of glass that I wrap around the equator. I apply each of them separately because I can't keep going and going with turning the mandrel and applying glass without a pause. I can never judge how much is going on there when it's that molten, lol! After a while you will be a very good judge on the glass amounts you're working onto the mandrel. For example, my beads that are around 10mm x 13mm use four wraps plus the frit or surface stringer decoration.

I used to melt each wrap in before applying the next one, but for some time now I don't have to do that. As long as I get my little footprint bead straight, I can slop on the wraps and then use heat and gravity as my round bead shaper. I turn the mandrel in either direction to do this, because the only time I turn in one direction is when I'm letting the bead cool right before it goes in the kiln.

It used to take me about 10 beads to get 2-3 that I liked (nobody has to be as anal as me, so they don't HAVE to be perfectly matched to each other!) and for some time now I usually make 10-14 for each set, and have just a couple of rejects. The rejects are usually ones that are obviously too large or small for the rest of the set, or messed up colors, etc.

[penny5658]

Hi Again :wave:
Thanks for all your suggestions. I will try them all to see what works best for me. And PPP, that is a definite. With practise you can only get better. Thanks eveyone.
Bye for now but I will be back.
Penny :waving:

[sunnyone]

I also count wraps and define the shape like size of a dime, nickel, quarter..etc....in my head for the next bead.

crystal