Share your Note-Taking Wisdom!

[isaberg]

I am not an organized person. I know this. But I'd really like to come up with some note-taking system, because I can't always remember from day to day what I did with a bead, and it would be great to be able to go back and repeat something. Just for kicks. Or avoid making the same mistake over and over. My beading life feels like Groundhog Day.

So, wise, generous, and organized friends:

-How do you keep notes?
-When do you write them?
-What do you write/enter them on?
-How do you know which notes go to which bead?
-Do you take pictures at any point? When I've tried to do this before they go into the kiln, they tend to crack.
-How do you put everything together afterwords?
-And can I be you when I grow up?

[MelanieG]

Right after my torching session, I write notes about what I remember having done while I was torching, usually in a notebook while watching General Hospital. I don't worry very much about which notes go to which bead, because I try to use the same colours for a whole torching session to make things less confusing later and I can usually figure out what I did by looking at the bead because I keep things so structured. I also don't worry much about the format of my notes or what notebook I put them in because, unless something that comes out of the kiln comes out extraordinary or unexpected, I probably won't ever need them again.

I work with a palette of about 20 different colours and usually keep the same palette for more than a month. In any given torching session, I might use ten or twelve of those colours. Doing things this way helps me to really understand the colours by the time I retire them and rework my palette.

I don't take pictures of stuff until after it is out of the kiln, and I don't worry too much about putting stuff together afterwards unless something in the batch of beads has me really pleased or excited, and then I look at my notes and study that bead and put a more final version of the notes into my private blog with a picture, with my other bead and component recipes.

Periodically, I go though my full notebooks and pull out pages that have stuff on them that looks like it should be kept, put that stuff in a file folder and then throw the notebooks out to keep us from drowning in notebooks. I dunno what I'm going to do with the folder because it's getting pretty full, but I really like leafing through the stuff I have in there.

[queenofsheba52]

Haley is one of the best note-takers around! Perhaps she will chime in, but until then I will share my modest ideas.

If I am experimenting with different colors or reactions:
1) Sometimes I plan ahead, make a list, and put colored spacers on the ends of the mandrels to denote which bead is which. When they come out of the kiln they get photographed and recorded in my notebook.

2) If I haven't made a plan, but stumble upon an interesting reaction, I write it down immediately after I put the bead in the kiln OR Imake spacers of my colors on the mandrel in the order that I used them. Record later in notebook.

3) Put the rods that I used down in order on my glass rod rest, write down after bead goes into kiln. Add to notebook later.

4) Hope I remember. This method usually fails. LOL

There are many ways to note ideas, hope others chime in.

Best regards,
Helene

[Ness]

Great idea for a thread!
(No help from me, I'm afraid - I am a scraps-of-paper-that-get-lost kind of note-taker)

[isaberg]

MelanieG - you're THAT Melanie? With the fabulous glass-testing blog? I love your blog! Can I have your autograph????

Actually, _your_ blog is what pushed me to write this question - I was looking at those great rundowns of each glass thinking to myself "and I can't even remember what I put on that fabulous bead from last week. People must have systems." Thanks for sharing yours!

[isaberg]

Helene - I love your idea of spacers! There's so much that could be done with that. I've been so caught up in numbering beads somehow - paper tags on the end catch fire in the kiln, who would have guessed - but I could just say "turquoise" or "yellow" instead. Small, but brilliant.

I think I have to work post-its into my system. I'm kind of a post-it fanatic in my teaching life.

HA! Post-its that coordinate to the spacer color? That's probably too elaborate.

[fionac]

Spacers, brilliant! I so have to do this, I just swipe blobs on the end of the mandrel and discard.
I have 2 notebooks on the go, I put everything I remember/think of into the first (colour combos, test schedules and idea sketches) and then I transfer anything I'm happy with to the 2nd forever notebook.

[glvz]

Haven't done it yet but I'm thinking of "borrowing" DH's voice activated digital recorder and using with voice recognition software on the computer and then adding photo.

Georgia

[Kalorlo]

I use day-a-page diaries and write down what I do for each bead throughout my torching session (or all at the end if it's not complicated). When I photograph my beads I put the date in the filename, then I can find one from the other if I need to later.

[betsymn]

I keep everything on the computer. When doing glass tests, I write down on a piece of paper what combination glasses I'm doing and assign a dot to that combo. Then after doing the bead, I melt a dot of glass on the mandrel (it can go from one to xxx dots, or it can be just one dot using different colors). After the kiln cools, I take photos of the beads and put them in a digital catalog along with the description.

[julieann1674]

Wow, I love everyone's idea. I think I am going to try and utilize Betsy's tip. I am not good about taking notes, even though I keep a notebook by my torch.

I usually have a plan of some sort when I sit down, but I mostly struggle with color combos...
so I have been labeling the opposite side of my mandrel with the colors/etc. Then when I pull it out of the kiln, I know what I did. Especially since glass isn't WYSIWYG (what you see is actually NOT what you get sometimes)

So labeling my mandrels helps if I have a session where I am pulling out a lot of different glass to play with.

[Mountain Snail]

Does writing on my studio wall in pink marker count?

[isaberg]

Mountain Snail - That sounds really convenient. Do you have a whiteboard, or just a really big wall?

[CreativeSpirit]

I have written down EVERY bead I have ever made in 13 years!LOL. right after I make a bead, I write down color, shape etc, so that when I make it into jewelry can can then write down in ANOTHER book, what the bead was made with! I'm sure people think Im crazy, but it really does come in handy!


Peace Wendy

[Mountain Snail]

Originally Posted by isaberg

Mountain Snail - That sounds really convenient. Do you have a whiteboard, or just a really big wall?

Well I have a chalkboard but if I get in a pinch it ends up on the wall. LOL