What do you do with your fugly's?

cherie · #1 2007-09-12, 12:16am

I am relatively new to lampworking and have an lot of experimentations and ugly beads...What do you do w/ yours? Save them?? I would like to keep my first few, but my sister would like the beads to put in her fishtanks to use as "pretty rocks". I could clean the beads really well, but I think there could be some degree of bead poop left on the bead..I wouldn't want to kill the fish w/ contaminated water. She has goldfish, no tropical or fancy fish.

So what did you do w/ yours???

Kevan · #2 2007-09-12, 2:27am

That sounds like a good idea.

I live at the beach. I put mine in the ocean. I hope someone finds them when they are walking along the beach.

emtjab · #3 2007-09-12, 4:00am

Put them in a dish for 50 cents each if you do craft or art fairs...they sell like crazy to little kids....

And they keep the kiddies occupied so that mom (or dad) can shop the rest of your goodies with a few moments of peace...lol

Julie

villa design · #4 2007-09-12, 5:45am

In your eye they might be fuglys but someone might like them. I put mine in the $1 bowl.

daisydog7 · #5 2007-09-12, 6:56am

Show them to friends and family. I had some I thought were awful. My son loved them and told me to put them on eBay. They brought a good price. Beauty is sometimes in the eye of the beholder and we can be our own worst critic.

PinkLilyDesigns · #6 2007-09-12, 7:16am

I give mine away on Craigslist.

jjglass · #7 2007-09-12, 7:20am

I have a flat sided vase on my mantle that i throw all my practice marbles into. Even the fugglies look cool in there with all the other varied colors and decorations.

Dale M. · #8 2007-09-12, 7:31am

I've sold a bunch in local bead shop... $3 each and they are used for hair stick ends and jacket zipper pulls.... One of a kind (orphans) and fuglys have market potential.... On gal has bought 29 of them...

Dale

FourTailsLampwork · #9 2007-09-12, 7:40am

I put the ones with sharp ends in the garden or in the rooting vases. The ones with good ends that are just fugly go to students of mine who teach special ed--the kids don't care what the beads look like as long as they are stringable. Sometimes I put them out at folk dances for ten or twenty cents each.

evilglass · #10 2007-09-12, 8:23am

Quote:

Originally Posted by cherie

I am relatively new to lampworking and have an lot of experimentations and ugly beads...What do you do w/ yours? Save them?? I would like to keep my first few, but my sister would like the beads to put in her fishtanks to use as "pretty rocks". I could clean the beads really well, but I think there could be some degree of bead poop left on the bead..I wouldn't want to kill the fish w/ contaminated water. She has goldfish, no tropical or fancy fish.

So what did you do w/ yours???

I put them in "grab bags" and sell them at my ren fair. I think I was selling 10 for $5 or something like that. I made booth cost on them last year, and this year I bet I'll do better. No rearranging what's in the bags, either-which increases sales well, LOL. One lady bought like 15 bags!

Emily · #11 2007-09-12, 10:58am

You need to keep your VERY first ones, of course -- the ones from your very first class, or your very first torching session. Just five or six beads. After that, they can go in the fish tank or the ocean or get embedded in paving stones or whatever.

beadworkstudio · #12 2007-09-12, 12:40pm

Wow, you guys sell your rejects cheap! I sell mine for $5 each. They are usually focal size, and I wouldn't go so far as to call them fugly. Just not sellable at full price. They account for at least half of the money I make each month on bead sales.

tt4st · #13 2007-09-12, 2:47pm

I sell them like hotcakes for $1 each. It must be a mind thing because they often start digging through them and think they're getting a great bargain. They often ignore the matching spacer sets I have carded up for slightly more per bead .... they'd rather pick through the rejects !!!

FosterFire · #14 2007-09-12, 5:48pm

1. Put them in clear liquid pump soap containers. My grandson loves washing his hands with Nana's special bead soap.
2. Fish tank
3. Given to Starbucks people as tips.
4. Given to small (good) children

Otter's Flame · #15 2007-09-13, 4:39am

I kill them dead until they stop mocking me....and then I kill them some more. If they are real fuglies I give them a cold water annealing. If they managed to make it into the kiln and they come out fugly I save them up and put them in the kiln when I have enough....heat them to 900 degrees and into the cold water they go. I used to save fuglies but they are fugly...there is no point in saving them. I used to keep them in a jar until a "friend" went through a jar and took over 60 of them. My fuglies are abominations, freaks of nature that have no right to exist....they never see the light of day anymore.

Otter

blong2001 · #16 2007-09-13, 6:09am

They go in a jar over the fire place. No one ever looks closely at them and they add a bit of color to my red living room!
Beth

beadsoncypress · #17 2007-10-19, 8:01am

Sell them cheap - Marked REJECTS! , give them away...and everytime my sister comes to visit she steals all she can get her hands on. She has one necklace of just awful beads (all really, really bad that were in the trash) all mixed together and it looks great. She was offered big $$ for it!
Go figure.

Karen Hardy · #18 2007-10-19, 8:36am

"Bowl of shame" in the studio.

Teena · #19 2007-10-19, 8:49am

I give all my round "not so perfect" and round fugly beads to BEADS OF COURAGE. My grandson was in Childrens Hospital of L.A. last year with Cancer. Thats where I heard of the Beads of Courage program. I just mailed off 75 to them and its a great feeling to know you have helped put a smile on a little ones face, if just for a moment.....
Here is the address you can send them to: J. Baruch
3331 N. Riverbend Circle West, Tucson, AZ 85750

PaulaD · #20 2007-10-19, 8:54am

I give them to a home where elderly people live and they either wear them or use them for crafts. Paula

ewdb · #21 2007-10-19, 9:14am

don't have that many so far - but i love them all, fugly or not.

mostly i just keep them in a bowl and run my fingers through them while i'm planning the next set of colour combos for an upcoming torch session. the soft clacking sounds they make as they tumble over each other are very relaxing (at least to me) and i love the way they feel in my hands... the weight, texture, the way each one catches the light in a different way...

also, fuglies usually have the start of a great idea (which may not have completely worked out) so for me they act as a reference point for when/if i want to try that idea again.

I suppose once i start seriously selling, i'll do what most do here. I like the idea of the $5 bead bags...

SteveWright · #22 2007-10-19, 11:03am

My seconds go straight into the trash.

The ones that turn out, but I went stupid with the colors, used to collect into a $1 kids bead tray. I sold them with enough leather cord, usually a $1 worth, so the kid could make a necklace. Kids are fascinated with a pile of beads and will spend as much time as the parents will allow, sorting and choosing.

Note, after a couple dozen kids rummage through such a pile, it has to be treated like toxic waste. Bag up then use hand sanitizer. (I tend to pick up kid-crud)

Steve

Hayley · #23 2007-10-19, 5:30pm

Most of mine, like Teena, go to Beads of Courage.

terrylynn124 · #24 2007-10-20, 5:36am

Considering that I have many, MANY fuglies (only been torching for about 6 months) I incorporate mine into windchimes or suncatchers. I use scraps from my stained glass supply to assemble pleasing color combinations and geometric shapes and make sure that I leave room for my fugly danglies to hang from various positions on the piece. Once these hang in the window, the sun shining through makes even the ugliest bead look beautiful.

ryman · #25 2007-10-20, 6:37am

I have 2 bead bowls of idea beads-- run my fingers through and think about color combos. Then I have some inbetween bricks laid on sand, some get sprinkled at the beach, and my earliest ones I epoxied onto the frame of my license plate. This has turned out to be a great idea! In parking lots people come up and ask about it and go away with a business card. I' m a second grade teacher and so my class gets some made into key rings and bookmarks. I'm thinking of hanging strings of them on fishing line in my studio wndow.... I really only throw away those with cracks and sharp ends.

beadgoodies · #26 2007-10-20, 10:28am

Wow, some really good ideas here. Normally, I just chuck mine!

Candy

Salado Flameworks · #27 2007-10-20, 11:15am

I haven't been torching long, but I'm saving my well-shaped fugly's for Beads of Courage.

Note to self - don't piss Otter off...

Peg

Glasstastic Treasures · #28 2007-10-20, 11:20am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otter's Flame

I kill them dead until they stop mocking me....and then I kill them some more.

Otter

OMG, LMAO

Mine actually sell first, and I only mark them down a little bit. I don't get it....

SadiesJewels · #29 2007-10-20, 2:15pm

I have a complicated system of fugly (cute ugly), ugly (amazing how wonderful some people think these are), wonky (my major beef with my beads) and downright no good - the "Oopsies" are the better but not really a quality bead that I sell for $7 each (I've been doing a roaring trade with them recently), then the rest go to beads of courage, other charities (I'm often asked), and really bad ones go in the trash. Sometimes I even keep the really awful ones as a reminder of just how bad I can get (sometimes the end bead stinks but it has a great effect that I need a reminder of etc).

Oh and some of my older smaller ones I use to bribe children with - lol.

tammydownunder · #30 2007-10-20, 4:35pm

I wonder what would happen if I sent my fuglies to Kevan to photoshop?