Box Making - The Pillow Box

Something a little different today and throwback to my days on The Carol Duvall Show. If it's one thing Miss Carol loved, it was a good, handmade box! As someone who simply adores the fine art of paper engineering, I developed a deep appreciation for them too!

This past week I sold a bead pen on Karen Thomas' Beadable Products page (a lovely little Facebook group devoted to finished beadables that Karen sells and the beads that fit on them!) But it was not any ordinary bead pen! It featured an extra large, extraordinary plant bead from the oh-so-amazing Cynthia Tilker. The humble spacers from me... Meet Audrey:

Isn't she just fabulous??? Cynthia is a master sculptor!  And after it sold ...to someone in Hawaii... I was panic stricken when I realized I was out of long skinny bracelet boxes... then more panic set in as I went to order them and realized Audrey was a bit to plump to fit nicely in a bracelet box!

I searched and searched for the proper box. I quizzed other bead pen sellers and remained panicked!

I started puttering through my box stash and realized that the pocket boxes I ship "cheaper breakables" in would almost fit...but not quite.

We interrupt this post to discuss everyone's least favorite topic: PRICING:

Cheaper breakables??? Isn't all glass breakable?? Well, yes, but the likelihood of a round or donut bead breaking in transit is pretty nil. And... you have to analyze YOUR costs. For me, the jewelry boxes I use for shipping cost me between 30 and 50 cents each. After doing the math on my shipping charges, they are only cost effective for me on orders of $20 or more.

So, $20 or more goes in a cotton-filled jewelry box. Under $20 gets bubble wrap as long as they are simple, less likely to break beads.

But then there are those that don't fit nicely into to that rule structure. Such as the mini witch hat I made this year. It sells for $17.

But that brim is thin... In cases such as this, I use corrugated pillow boxes which are around 18 cents each... a pretty cheap insurance policy if you ask me. I've found these boxes helpful when shipping weight is on the verge of a price increase. The lighter box often makes it a few pennies cheaper to ship.

Back to the box:

You can find a million templates for pillow boxes out there  such as the one below...but it was hard for me to find a ready made one as long and as thick as I needed for Audrey.

The basic pillow box has three parts: 2 sides, a hidden tab, and four "eyes" that form the opening mechanism. For those of you who are new to paper engineering, solid lines are cut lines; dash lines are where you score.

Because of my sizing issue, my template only gave me a rough idea of where to go... so I got out some plain cardstock and my trusty bone folder and made myself a template. I knew it needed to be at least 7" long to accommodate for bubble wrap and just over 2" thick to allow for the big bead.  I used a CD to sketch big round ends... and it was a total failure! It would not close properly.

I pondered my failure for another 1/2 day. Then while getting a relaxing massage for my crappy shoulder, it hit me...the ends have to remain EYE shaped to work!  I knew that by making it a little bit wider, I would get the depth I need!  (See what happens when you relax and clear your mind!)

I made a 2nd template, this time using the full width of the 8.5 x 11 paper. I stuck it together with some temporary tack glue and voila! It held Audrey beautifully! Then I was ready for the final box.

For Audrey to travel overseas, I knew I wanted corrugated for the ultimate in protection. I had some green corrugated rolled card stock in my stash. I traced my template and cut it out. I had to use the round end of the bone folder on the score lines to not puncture the paper and I scored it twice for good measure as the paper was thick! I glued the flap to the inside so the outside remained smooth. Here's the finished open box:

I found the ends a bit hard to open so I used a paper punch to create notches. This took a bit of patience on the thick paper:

Here is Audrey, all bundled up: tissue paper, bubble wrap with an extra piece of bubble around the big bead, all taped up. She fit the box just fine!

Here she is tied up and waiting for ribbon trimming:

Have you ever had a boxing dilemma??? I would love to know how you solved it!

When Customers Don't Pay - An a-BAZE-ing Sale!

If there is one downside to selling on Facebook, it's is when customers don't pay! I can't tell you why they don't as I've heard many simply never reply to your emails.

I personally have not had too much of an issue with this...but I have had friends that have had horrible luck with non payers! But recently, one customer, Teresa, got herself into some hot water...bidding and bidding and bidding...from MANY of us. We often started chatting two by two... "How much does she owe you?" "I heard she owes _____ about a hundred too!"  And then it turned into a massive chat with a bunch of sellers griping and she got wind of it and blocked us all.

All these items remain unpaid for by my customer and will be the focus of my Facebook sales this week.

I'm not proud of having participated in that chat...but this is after her being weeks late owing me - and many other at least $100 each. She owed one $200. (And I have no issue using her name here...she's messed with my income and when you do that, I have no problem embarrassing you!)

She had gotten banned from three sites when I first met her. I campaigned to an owner I'm friends with to please let her back in..."she says it was all an misunderstanding"... She bought from me repeatedly and I was happy with her business. Until she just kept adding and adding and kept pushing her pay-by deadline.

I really don't mind running a tab for regulars. I sell more and they save on shipping; I save on Paypal fees... win / win!  But most have a comfort zone of when they pay. For some it's $50; others $100. But when she stopped communicating and cut off contact... I was done.

OTHER Blocks...

One part of the problem is that some people have their privacy settings so that  strangers can't contact them on Facebook and our emails often go to the OTHER mailbox. Facebook literally has a mail box called "other!" How lame is that???

I cannot tell you how many sellers and customers alike have NO IDEA there is the "other" mailbox! When you click on your mailbox icon on Facebook, next to the word inbox is the word other... check it! You may have some mail that is years old!

 

The forever lame "other" mail box. Gee, thanks Facebook!

And then you get into people who block... when you block someone on Facebook, not only can they not contact you, both of you cannot see what the other posts. You could be commenting in the same thread... bidding on the same bead and you cannot see it! Bottom line, if you want to buy on Facebook, you shouldn't block people. 


The Artist's Way...
As an artist, we are often mentally paying our bills as we sell. For those of you with real jobs, this may not make sense. But as someone who has always worked freelance, I never know when the money is going to come. It's often feast or famine! Boom or bust!

When someone commits to buying a bead, I'm mentally paying down a credit card, or knowing I can run my dog to the vet, or buy that new tool I've been dreaming of for a year! YOUR commitment to buy MEANS something to me! A hundred bucks may not mean much to Teresa, or anyone else...but to me it does!

Teresa Baze is a liar and not a friend of artists. She commits to purchase things she has no intention of paying for. Is she cares to pay me the $98 she owes me plus shipping and taxes, I'll be happy to remove this note!

Paypal Ship Now

I was talking with another lampworker last week and the subject of shipping to a customer who has paid you without using Paypal came up. Many folks use those pay through the nose by the month services. I've never had money to burn like that. But many mistakenly think that is the ONLY way to have tracking on a first class package. Not true!

Someone told me about Paypal Ship Now years ago. I just sort of assumed everyone knew about it... but it really does seem to be a "secret" link in Paypal. Well... not so secret now. You DO have to be logged in for the link to work.

It's a good thing to know about as we don't ALWAYS receive a Paypal payment for something. I take credit cards via my website. Old friends send me checks. I still get money orders from time to time.  But you can still ship 1st class USPS WITH tracking using that link. The shipping window is almost identical to Paypal's regular shipping window...only the address is black. Fill it in and the rest is exactly the same.

Paypal Ship Now is a very good thing... spread the word!

Kiln Harvest and Lani Ching Tool

Today's Fresh Glass Beads... And a tool I've had on my work table for ages but am now in love with!

Confession time: My name is Holly and I have an addiction. I.... am a tool hog! I love tools. Maybe it's leftover from my childhood obsession with my dad's plumbing tools but I've often owned more and better tools than the guys I've dated. Glass is the perfect venue for a tool hog....there's always something newer and better! It's my embarrassment over this that keeps me from talking about tools very often. But I have to with this.

The proper name of this tool from Arrow Springs is The Lani Ching Shaper. And before you run out and buy it, let me tell you, there is something newer and better! I've had mine for years...probably since I took Lani's class in 2008. But I only recently figured out how to use it and why it's so wonderful. I only wish it were a bit longer so I could use it with my long skinny beads I love so much.

First of all, this all goes back to the dot challenge... My goodness! Is that silly challenge ever going to stop teaching me something???  It was early on when I was struggling with consistent sizes and I was taking a break. I picked up an ancient issue of the Flow Magazine and Craig from Arrow Springs had written a piece about the new Cylinder Speed Shaper. I read that and got back to work... and noticed the Lani tool on my desk.

Before, to shape a cylinder, I had been using a brass mold with very shallow sides...kinda like the opposite side of the Lani Shaper... which I rarely use. I find I have to make a specific size bead to have that side work for me.  But I immdidately recognized the value of marving two sides a of a bead at once and the slanted groove side does just that!

Suddenly, making a huge cylinder was easy!! I had struggled with volume control and keeping things centered before...but not with this tool! And messy ends are GONE!

And here we go back to the dot challenge. While I didn't use tools in that...I learned something about repetition. While I'm a total dropout on the 2nd Challenge as I get ready for my Trunk Show... I am making LOTS of the same basic cylinder! I've had several regular customers request that I make wine stoppers / bottle openers as gifts this year. So every session...I've been making substantial cylinders...look back through those fresh glass photos if you don't believe me!

By making this same shape over and over, I've taught myself so much!

• Footprint is vital when making beads to a specific size. 
• Once that footprint is set, unless I do something stupid, it's really hard to actually mess it up!
• Marvering two sides at once really helps keep the bead centered perfectly! 
• Volume control is also easy breezy... heat a little where there is too much glass and a lot where you want the glass to go. Marver in the Lani Shaper and viola! 
• Heating and marvering each end one at a time off the edge makes a bead that can stand up on it's own! 

Here are how I marver both ends:

I'm certain the Lani Shaper gave birth to the cylinder speed shaper and the Arrow Springs video of the speed shaper in action is pretty darn cool to watch. And yes, the speed shaper is on my covet list. But either one is a nice addition if you are making cylinders. These are "must have" tools!!

Chinese Glass Beads - You Really Do Get What You Pay For

It's happened time and again at shows and online. "Real" glass bead artisans find themselves next to a poser. Someone pretending to be an artisan but she really imports the beads from China and sells those glass beads for pennies on the dollar. You sit there in your booth, hoping just to break even while the fake "artisan" is selling hand over fist. People really don't understand the vast differences in price between artisan beads and Chinese. And they more frequently than not will opt for savings.

So... let's take a look at what you get for your hard earned pennies when you go for cheaper Chinese glass beads. I ordered the beads below from a Chinese reseller on Ebay over 15 years ago before I knew what quality in a glass bead was. I just wanted something with a pink ribbon on it for my sister.  Upon first glance, they seem ok. But not really... see that while line in the middle of the bead? That's bead release that has not been properly removed. These are dirty beads...

When I took a needle nose tweezer to them, look at all the release I scraped out with very little effort:

When you make jewelry with dirty beads, the beading cord rubs against the bead release and soon, the whole piece looks nasty. Over time, the dirt breaks down the beading cord cutting years off the wear of the piece.

But that's not the only problem. Chinese beads are never annealed. Glass must be returned to room temp from a liquid state in very specific and controlled stages. This takes time and costs money! Digital kilns are not cheap and are often the most expensive tool in the artisan's possession. When you don't take the time to do this, the beads can break easily, often right along the hole.

I am a klutz and you know I make big beads. I have often dropped one of my big honkers on my tile kitchen floor and.... NOTHING happened to it! It did not break because annealing made it strong!

But I dropped one of these on my tile floor just to see what would happen. Being a small bead, I thought it might not break... but it did!

Jewelry makers have to realize that their reputation can depend on the beads they choose for their work. Are you happy getting quick sale or do you want to be known as an artisan of quality pieces? Which one is likely to create repeat business? Is the money saved on these crap beads really a value or simply wasted??

You have to take responsibility when shopping. Grace, Austin Hamilton and their ilk import Chinese crap and try to pass it off as artisan glass, when it is dirty, not annealed and made in a factory for pennies.

When shopping in person, if you see someone selling glass beads much cheaper than other booths at a show, ask them who makes their beads. Is it one person or many??? Do they have boxes and boxes of the same bead? That's a dead giveaway. Most true artisans make 3 -5 of a similar bead but opt for greater choice at a show.

Online, know that even spacer beads should cost at least a buck a piece. If you are buy six or seven beads for $7 including shipping, you are getting Chinese beads. You most certainly won't even receive the beads in the photo.

Photos that show many sets in the same style are another giveaway. So is seeing the same exact item (often using the same photo from the manufacturer) for sale in different shops.

Narrow your search functions be searching for specific glass artists you know of or using the term sra. Be a responsible shopping and you'll find quality glass beads that allow you to create lifetime treasures!

Cross Pollination of Skills: Cake and Beads

As a life long crafter and even a producer of craft television shows, I've tried almost every craft on the planet. Even entertained several quite seriously. One of those was cake decorating. Another was rubber stamping. It seemed like kismet that I would end up working for, then owning the only food safe rubber stamp company!

But more interesting to me is how the skills I pick up in one area...seem to migrate into another. Silk screening and printing skills helped me easily grasp the manufacturing of wood mounted rubber stamps. Crochet lead me to bead crochet which lead to kumihimo. Rubber stamping lead to carving my own images which developed an interest in wood turning and now, laser carving...on glass! See??? One thing leads to another.

Red Velvet XL Cupcake Glass Bead

But one of my best tricks as a bead maker is... cake decorating!  It's no secret that I love making pastries in glass. But I'm talking about decorating a basic bead... you can get some FABULOUS pointers from cake decorators that can easily be adapted in glass.

For instance: This spider web video. When she's dragging the icing, you realize that you would do the dragging as you lay the line down in glass.


Here's another web where she makes the spider... except for saving the legs for last - in glass they go on first - there are some great shaping techniques!



Here's another fun one on leopard prints...which is an ever-popular bead design!




Because both mediums are two dimensional, the shape work and layering is basically the same! Find a few cake decorators you like on YouTube and follow them! Their work is often season, like ours and you will certainly pick up some great ideas that translate to glass!

The Elusive Striped Bead

Ah... the striped bead. It has been my Holy Grail of lampworking. All these years in and I still suck! I still read tutorials and try one from time to time. But last week, it was just driving me nuts. I'm really good at some things... WHY can't I get THIS??? Grrrrrrr!

These are the ones I've deemed O.K. to show you: 

I always seem to have some color gap or a twist going on. I know the twist is heat control and the color gap must be volume control but when I've added the right size / equal amounts of glass, WHY do I still have this issue???

Well, the heat control turned out to be a bigger factor than I thought. I make big beads and... I LOVE to work hot and fast! Most of my big beads take me an hour or more to make! It seems really hard to justify "wasting" 5 - 10 minutes on ONE LITTLE bead!

So I sat down and read every tutorial I could find, one MORE time! And I finally made some decent stripes! See that pink and brown donut on the left... That bead has been in my head for a decade! 

Heat control is HUGE. I remember Kimberly Affleck demoing that she could tap her bead on her marver without smushing it before encasing! You can't case a soft bead and not have it distort. Working UNDER the flame is key!

And volume control... having equal size dots is imperative and still an issue!

But lastly...it's patience. After making these for an hour and a half, my old tricks started coming back. I was losing patience waiting for glass to melt and they started to distort again. The pink twisted one is the last one I made.... SIGH.

But it is FINALLY starting - just beginning- to click! OY!

These are links to the tuts that helped me:

Corina's Subtle Stripes
Basic Stripes by Melinda Melanson

Candice Mathewson's Cased Layered Triangle Bead
Karen Mitchell's Advice (Post #8)
Kandice Seeber's Striped Tutorial (for sale) 

Spring Cleaning

I've been a busy girl! Obsessed with my new Glass Bead Blog, teaching several classes this week, trying to expand my teaching horizons by applying  to several new schools (time consuming paperwork!). I'm also trying find more affordable health insurance as my current one is more than I make most months...this for a girl who avoids doctors like the plague! But that is MORE time consuming paperwork!

I'm also trying to start a new business venture that will actually bring in some income since it appears I won't be getting a job any time soon.... Can you tell I'm in the "Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" phase of panicking about my finances???

I have beads to list...but no one seems to be buying beads. Buying beads motivates your bead maker to list beads... I forgot to even photograph today's "fresh glass!" And I have a couple of orders for Memorial beads...

So in the middle of all the things I "should" be doing... what am I actually doing??? Spring cleaning! I've been going through closets and washing walls and cabinets!

And then there's this project:

 I ask you, if not for my little label, could you actually READ the label on this frit jar??? I can't...

I'm not knocking any one frit maker... I love them all but... over time, the labels ALWAYS fade. And I have a hard enough time seeing anything! So out came the label maker...

It was a BIG project:

Which led to an even bigger one... but I will save that for another post!

The Uh-Oh Bead

These beads may not be the best example to use for this topic. I can't say I particularly like them even... Yes, they are that metallic but... just not right for me.

But I did have one of those forehead slapping moments when I made them! I love beads that teach me a lesson!

This was a lesson in production work...something I don't do very well but...in this economy, if I get an order, I can't really afford to turn it down. I was making about a thousand 37 letter beads for a group. The work was repetitive and tedious. And they were pressed beads.

As it always happens with my brain...sometimes I zone out and put too much glass on the mandrel. While sometimes I can fix that...volume control is a mad skill to have! Sometimes the bead over presses the mold on the mandrel and it's time for a water bath. OR is it???

I realized that the largest round mold I have was just bigger than my square press. So... what could I make with ivory and black? I had a metallic black stringer on my table and I used these as my experiment beads. As luck would have it, once I figured out what to do with an over-pressed bead...I only had three uh-ohs!

And while I'm not in love with these, I AM in love with the idea. I know I will never sit down to do production work again without thinking of what to do with the mistake beads. Most pressed beads begin with a fairly basic color. Keep a jar of similar frit or an interesting stringer, a larger mold or press nearby and even the uh-oh beads can be keepers!

What do you do with your uh-ohs???

China Bead

Meet China. She is a very large display bead containing the cremains of a beloved pet. Her owner wanted a simple way for China's dad to remember the love she brought to them. The cremains are cased in a solid color so they won't be seen. Since they didn't know how they would display this bead, the heart was to be placed both horizontally and vertically.

The colors were chosen to be color of China's furs and to represent the love.  And here is a photo of the beautiful China on my work table, snoopervising:

Unfortunately, we had a nightmare getting this China's precious package to her owners! What a lesson I learned. They only live 12 miles from me... I shipped priority mail figuring delivery confirmation was an accurate thing!  I received a notice it had been delivered. And a few hours later, China's mom wrote how she was anxiously awaiting the arrival! Wha????

What followed was days of begging, pleading, cajoling and crying on both our parts! It took almost a week to sort out that they temp postman had placed the package through the door of an empty house a block from my customer's home!  The occupants had recently moved away!  After days of phone calls and emails and research, China's mom took matters into her own hands and shoved a not through the door of the empty house. She got her package the next day! The previous owners had come by to check mail, found the note and the package and walked it down the street.

Now, packages containing cremains REQUIRE a signature; the price of avoiding stupid postmen!

Got Bead Crochet? Can Travel!

Yesterday was my fur baby's birthday and I wanted her to get to spend a large chunk of time beside a creek. And since I'm leaving town well before my Art Bead Scene entry is due (I'm usually the last to post!), I have a lot of "giterdone" going on around here.

So I coiled up the crochet that is the basis of my project this month and threw it in my backpack. I wished I still had some rollers around from the days when I thought I could make my hair submit to my will because, the BeadWrangler says that coiling threaded bead crochet around a roller makes a secure way to carry a project. But I gave up on hair submission a good decade ago, so I simply coiled the threaded beads around the spool of thread and added it all to my backpack along with some water, dried pineapple and my camera.

It would have been a blissful way to crochet, sitting by a babbling brook, watching the pupster enjoy her favorite place on earth and creating something pretty. But life rarely goes as planned...
Oh, I found that picturesque spot all right. I settled in on a boulder and pulled out my crochet while Mabel Lou played.

And then, the "if onlys" started.... If only we knew the trail head would have been washed out, making me climb on hands and knees up a rock face to reach the road.... If only I hadn't been bit by a spider days ago, making my leg swell and be super sensitive to the point I don't notice things I should.... If only I had noticed my backpack had a hole in it! If only my crochet needle hadn't been lost ...somewhere!

So I sat there anxious to get home...plotting the best path to the fabric store for a new needle! I took a deep breath and reminded myself that the day and the outing was not about ME. I wanted the pup to have some extended play time and she got just that.

I still think bead crochet is a great take-along project. Just put that needle in a bag before you put it in your bag!

Let's Start a Revolution!

One of my shopping cart providers for one of my many websites is undergoing some changes forcing me to rethink the way I process credit cards. In researching my options, I stumbled across Revolution Money Exchange and was very pleasantly surprised that many merchants on Etsy and Artfire already know about this cool not-so-new way to exchange money. A quick search on Etsy reveals over 5,000 items accepting payment with RME.

When I read about this company and how easy it is to pay others WITH NO FEES, I was on board. Then I got my MoneyExchange RevolutionCard. I thought this was simply an ATM type card to access monies in my account...but NOOOO. A quick search on the RME website revealed a HUGE list of merchants accepting the card!

Places like Hometown Buffet, Office Depot, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Autozone, GNC, 99 Cents Only, Claire's, Skechers, Bed Bath Beyond, Leslie's Pool Supply, Barne's and Noble, Macy's, Hickory Farms, and the UPS Store...just to name a FEW. Clearly if this is working for these major chains...it's good enough for my small little operation... and will maybe save me some moolah in the process!!

Think about the money you pay your credit card processor or the other online place we all use... Outrageous! They nickel and dime thirty cent us to death! Isn't it about time that we, as artists, KEEP the profits from OUR hard work???

I urge you all to start a revolution...or at least join one in progress! Join RME...use it when shopping online and encourage your customers to join too! Put the badges on your websites...Let people know there is a better option!

Best Practices: Spacer Beads

I must admit, I've always struggled a bit with spacer beads. Getting them even close to the same size confounded me. Then I learned a cool trick.

I was signed up to take Margaret Zinser's class and as luck would have it...my back went out. I knew I couldn't make the drive, much less sit through class. I called a friend and she took my place in class.

She told me that one of the coolest things she learned was how Margaret makes all of her gorgeous spacer beads.

She makes 10 or so on the same mandrel! I've only gotten up to seven or eight but here's some of mine:


And while this is very helpful when making spacers, working like this is a great basic technique in heat control. Controlling heat is vital in the sculptural big beads I love so much. By going back to something so basic, it helps with more advanced work. I just love how that happens!

And as far as spacers being perfectly alike, Margaret gave the class a few pointers on that as well: handmade beads are not supposed to be perfectly alike...they are handmade, you know!

I have to say, I'm finally enjoying making a really basic bead!

These below are on the Holly's Folly shopping pages.