Scroll-challenged - drawing help needed!
 

I've always looked longingly at beautiful scrollwork beads. I've tried time and again to make them and typically ended up with a horrid little bead mess. I've learned to attempt them in colors that look good in a gravity-swirl so I can at least salvage the glass.

So, yesterday I went back to the drawing board - literally - and started to sketch ideas for scroll beads so that I could work through a few hundred until I could get one right. It was here I learned the source of my problem. Surprise - I can't DRAW a darned decent looking scroll either. :wtf: It is probably too much to expect that I could create something in glass that I couldn't create on paper ](*,)

So now I'm commited to a) quit blaming stringer control b) drawing and doodling hundreds of scrolls and swirls until I can do nice ones easily.

For you scrollwork marvels in the crowd, did you ALWAYS know how to draw these? How did you learn? Is there a particular trick you use? How did you practice? Were your grade-school textbook covers and grad school lecture notes covered in intricate spirals and scrollwork?

Is there a workbook or tutorial or something online or through Amazon that helps the scroll challenged learn to draw graceful scrolls and swirls? OMG I need help!

For me it's mostly just about looking ahead so I don't run out of room. I try to begin and end my scrolls on an edge of a lentil or something so if it does look a little off, it's not nearly as noticeable.

I'm scroll challenged, too, but not because I can't draw a scroll. I'm actually pretty good at that. I CAN'T control the heat on the stringer. I have Kandice Seeber's tutorial "Decorating with Stinger." It's a great tutorial, but I still can't get it right. I'm going to take some time and decorate tone-on-tone so that I'll at least have some nice solid colored beads.

Good luck to us both!

Another good practice tip I learned from Lisa St. Martin is to make a big paddle of clear boro and practice your scrolls/dots whatever. Then when they're cool they will come right off and you can keep reusing the paddle, both sides too.
I found a good scroll pattern on Google and copied it to keep by my work area too.

Nice tip about the boro paddle. I think I might also try the trick I read about for dot control - make a plain white bead on an old mandrel, and use dry erase markers to practice. That DID help me with dot placement (although I quit too soon lol). I might get out my plain bead, and also make a plain white lentil, plain white tube, and plain white bicone. I should probably use those for templates more often when I design beads, instead of my usual method which is "go to the torch and melt stuff until I get it right".

Planning - what a concept!

Sheila--really like the Boro tip--thanks!

Have you thought about getting some tracing paper? I wonder if you can essentially train your hand to the patterns.

It's basically an "S" or a "C" exaggerated...sort of...

The best tip I can offer is always make sure the bead is hot where you want to apply the stringer, and make sure the stringer is never directly in the flame. It's always about finding that sweet spot next to the flame that makes the stringer start to flow. If the bead is cold and you aren't close enough to the flame (or in it!) the stringer will just keep blobbing up and skipping around the bead. Try using a thicker stringer made from a transparent to practice (transparents are usually stiffer than opaque colors and are easier to learn with), warm up your bead and see how close to the flame you have to be before it starts to melt for you. Don't stress about a pattern yet just practice and play to gain confidence.

Good luck!
Pat

Pat - thanks, great tips - but I can actually put a straight line or simple curve down with stringer fairly well - could always use more PPP, but making Anne Ricket's plaid beads from her tutorial helped with the straight lines, various widths, opaque and transparent practice there! I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a great way to practice simple stringer lines and get some nice beads in the process.

Nope, it's the patterns I struggle with! I took my design notebook and covered two pages with random curves and scrolls. Then I traced a quarter all over a couple of pages - figuring that's pretty close to a lentil size. Then I drew another page of tubes and bicones. I sketched scrolls onto all of them. In lentil land, I got TWO that I thought looked ok. Now I'm gonna draw those two over and over again until I remember them, THEN try putting them on a bead. And then I'm gonna go back and try to find some more patterns :)

I found some fantastic inspiration a few years ago on the web with Henna patterns! Look at the individual parts that make the whole pattern and pick a few to start with.
Pat

A couple of suggestions if I may:

Doodle. Doodle doodle doodle. Keep a few Post-it pads around, and whenever you're on the phone or watching TV, just let your hands go. 2 reasons: the practice is always a good thing, and after a while you'll also find yourself drawing similar patterns. Those are the ones you'll likely do best at on the bead.

And...I had another one and it fell out of my head LOL I'll add it later when it comes back to me.

Move your bead, not your stringer.

and come to think of it, I was always drawing scrollpaterns for as long as I can remember. Doodling while on the phone, still do that. Scrolls, and flowers

Henna patterns! Going to Google!

Yes... I was going to suggest googling images of scroll/ swirls and spirals ... There are quite a few Zentangle patterns that have swirls. Then I suggest get the feeling of how the turns come in your sketch book. I too have doodled scrolls in various forms since I was young... Feel how one scroll joins another, and how they're spaced.

Makes me want to go and make some scroll patterns!

Take a look at http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...=223905&page=3 post 27. She gave some great hints.

It' actually post #143...took me awhile to find it but I learned alot about twisties!

I think drawing and applying stringers are totally different skills. I draw for a living and I find it much easier to make a scroll on a bead than to draw it on paper!
Maybe that's just me :)

Thanks Sheila ... I gave up after post 50!!

I have a henna book in my studio for this reason. :)

Oops, my bad. Sorry about the wrong number. Glad you found it Sheila and gave the right number. Slinking off to figure out how I got that so wrong......

Sharon

Don't slink off! You said post 27 because that's how many posts Kathe L has right now. You're not crazy... you just looked in the wrong spot for the post number. :lol:

It's just you...

Maybe you should try moving the paper instead of the pen. :wink:

Thanks for the pointer to the twisties thread (Haley's exchanges are ALWAYS informative!) Post 143 it is - and very helpful.

It's all HEAT CONTROL! I couldn't made a darn scrol for the life of me and took me a few years. Yes, working on the side of the flame and not directily in the flame so the stringer melts helps.

Kerri Fuhlr has the best tutorial on scroll work it's called New Tapestry Scroll work! I's incredible!!! and it helped me tremendously- buy it!!!


BTW I wouldn't bother drawing them out. you could Start with a large 'S' shape and do small S's off of that or overlapping your S shapes

I had my scroll epiphany on a long bead using thick stringer...I think I actually screamed :D

It was like a click in my brain, the trick is to maintain an even pressure, push down gently, don't try to lay it on, and work reasonably fast

quote "Kerri Fuhlr has the best tutorial on scroll work
it's called New Tapestry Scroll work".
I have done a search but can't find this tutorial. I would
like to buy it as my scroll work stinks! Anyone know where
to get it? Thanks.

Here's a link to her website and several tutorials she has available. The tutorial on scrollwork looks great so I may have to purchase it, too!

http://www.kerrifuhr.com/tutorials.html