How do you make each bead different in a set??

[Lisi]

Well I know the obvious answer is simply "make each one different". But what I would like to know, is how the heck do you do that??! I can only make sets of all the same color and size and have never even tried to make different ones and throw them together in a set. With one exception, the huge orphan sets I put up on ebay from time to time. Yeah, that's about as much variety as I'm willing to give, but they were laying around in boxes building up numbers.

I'm serious, I really want to know how do you do plan it, or don't you? Do you take a "color scheme" and lay it out on your table and program yourself to think, "I'm going to make beads of all kinds in every skill I've ever learned and in those colors only..and only those colors.." ??

It would be very weird for me to make little beads and each one different. A big focal, or two, or twenty, I can make those. But sets?? Forget it!

[Tink]

It's been a LONG time since I made any sets, but when I did I would lay out a very minor palette of glass colors and limit myself to that glass only. Then I'd just play until I got tired of torching or ran out of time for the day.

I think that, for me, it wasn't a matter of pressuring myself (you said: "I'm going to make beads of all kinds in every skill I've ever learned and in those colors only..and only those colors..") but more a matter of FREEING myself by eliminating distraction (color selection) and allowing myself and my imagination and creativity to run wild.

[CO_Phantom]

That's what I do when I'm at the torch anyway, regardless of what I'm trying to make. With all the glass colors and techniques and tools and frufru stuff, I typically limit myself to 5 rods (or so) and play with those. I generally have stuff in my head that I want to try, and I just use the same colors for all of those.

-Amy

[Kevan]

What Tink said. I don't make a lot of sets now either, but I can't make a set of all the same beads. It drives me nuts. I just take a group of 3 or so colors and make beads out of them. Like this -

[mtnlaurel]

I'll one of the books out there and look at some of the different beads - use the same colors and you have lots of different ones to make into a set.

[CO_Phantom]

Oooh, Kevan, those bottom ones are pretty! What glass is that in there that is making the rainbow?

[Teague]

I pick out my color scheme and play. You can't really use every skill or type of bead you know and have it go together. (Well you could, but I usually limit to a couple of basic ideas.

Like take this set:



It is mostly stripes and dots. Once I decided to do raised dots, then most of the beads have to have some, or they look out of place. Even looking back at this set, I see a couple that kind of look out of place. Like the last one in the upper right corner. It has some color bleed that makes those cool crosses in the center of the dots. Cool, but none of the other bead have this, the rest are crisp dots. Also it doesn't have a lot of raised dots. I liked the bead anyway, so I threw it in. But usually I would swap it out for another.

It takes me a long time to make a set like this though, probably 2-3 hours. And I almost never make one in one setting. Mostly because if I pick out a color combo and it doesn't work, I'd rather have 3-5 ugly beads than 12!

Teague

Teague

[squid]

Kevan's rainbow is from using raku. Raku loves her!

[Cosmo]

I admit that I don't make many sets. But when I do, here's what I do...

First, I decide what is going to define this set as "a set". Are they going to be all a certain color or color combination? Are they going to be all a certain shape? Are they all going to be a certain design? They have to have a certain design element in common, otherwise they are just a bunch of beads thrown together.

Once I have that established, I go from there. If they are all the same colors, I think of different ways to execute those colors. Maybe some have dots, some have stringer, some have frit. But all the same colors. This is what I make the most of.

If they are all the same shape, then you can decorate each one differently.

If they are all the same design (like florals, for instance) then you need to repeat a certain shape or series of shapes to tie them all together. I also make quite a few of these sets when I'm in "set-mode". I find a design I can consistently replicate, and make a bunch like that. Often I use multiple colors that compliment each other, though. And I usually make them all roughly the same size.

No matter what the common element, I make about twice as many beads as I want to have in the set. Inevitably some I won't like, so they go in my "orphans" box. Only my favorites of the batch make it into the set.