how important to you?

rjohn7 · #1 2013-09-16, 6:48am

How important is it to you to know what color you used for something?
At this point that does not seem to me to be the most important thing to me. I'm more concerned that each unknown color as I pull stringers etc stay identified as being the same. So it does not change part way through a project. otherwise its just not my biggest stress.

You?

R.

Dasi · #2 2013-09-16, 7:07am

i always want to know what color I use so it can be repeated. Some colors never seem to be repeated even when I do know.

I have people at shows tell me they want this pendant but in that shape..... I need the orders, so I do keep track of most pieces and the colors used. I log most pieces just after they go into the kiln with the colors used. Then I take notes the next day when I remove them from the kiln. I find it really helps to learn about each color. It also helps me when I need to duplicate a color for a customer. Sometimes I still spend a whole day working to recreate a certain striking color.

rjohn7 · #3 2013-09-16, 7:17am

would your view be different if you were not selling, or if you were not doing custom orders?

I couldn't do a show if I wished too. I'd be under the table with an anxiety attack wishing for a means to escape. so the chances of a customer at a show ever being able to say "make this in that color" is a little less likely than space aliens bringing your flowers.

I'm working with shorts so far and will be for about the next 10-13 pounds of color. in most cases the number isn't there. I was not thinking this an issue at all. I'm doing sculptural, and just figured I'd encase clear with color, pull rods and have at it. Making sure only one color was used in a piece....

People around me seem to think that should be an issue...

MagpieGlass · #4 2013-09-16, 7:48am

Yes and no.

If I really like the effect a certain color gives ... I want more of it.

But I've found I never get quite the same effect twice ... so it's a crap shoot either way.

I sell but avoid custom anything and always assure the individual that it won't come out quite the same. I make several and they have their pick or none at all.

But then I make what I like and if it sells ... wonderful ... it means someone else liked it. If it doesn't ... not the end of the world ... I'm not trying to support myself on the objects I make, yet.

So if it doesn't bother you ... don't let the others bother you. To each his own.

rjohn7 · #5 2013-09-16, 9:22am

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagpieGlass

Yes and no.

If I really like the effect a certain color gives ... I want more of it.

But I've found I never get quite the same effect twice ... so it's a crap shoot either way.

I sell but avoid custom anything and always assure the individual that it won't come out quite the same. I make several and they have their pick or none at all.

But then I make what I like and if it sells ... wonderful ... it means someone else liked it. If it doesn't ... not the end of the world ... I'm not trying to support myself on the objects I make, yet.

So if it doesn't bother you ... don't let the others bother you. To each his own.

This is very much how I feel for the most part. What little color I have done has had people asking me "what color did you use" and that's when the whole what sort of freak are you- you've got to keep records and KNOW what glass you're using.

Pretty much I think I'm terribly abusive to color. I heat it up to super hot again and again with garaging between. I really overwork my glass... so the colors that come out nice are not going to do the same thing without the abuse for someone else, and the ones that come out terrible are not going to be that way either. So my color combos won't be on much help to anyone else. I also mix assorted bits together until fairly smooth and evenly mixed, and coat my clear with that and pull rods to work with. I just don't seem to care one way or another what color I end up with, at least not at this point.

R.

Dasi · #6 2013-09-16, 10:10am

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjohn7

How important is it to you to know what color you used for something?
At this point that does not seem to me to be the most important thing to me. I'm more concerned that each unknown color as I pull stringers etc stay identified as being the same. So it does not change part way through a project. otherwise its just not my biggest stress.

You?

R.

Politely asking....... why did you asked how important it is to know????? I was trying to just be helpful. YOu do learn a lot about each color if you take good notes.

rjohn7 · #7 2013-09-16, 10:43am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dasi

Politely asking....... why did you asked how important it is to know????? I was trying to just be helpful. YOu do learn a lot about each color if you take good notes.

okay this makes a lot of sense. Perhaps this is the one bit everyone is leaving out when they're insisting I have to. I suppose the best I can do then with the shorts is post pictures and ask if anyone knows the color? and make small paddles to show it. So far there are no labels on any of the shorts I actually have in hand. I really do not have the option right now of buying a whole bunch of color just so I'll know what I'm working with.

At least I know now why the reactions and insistence I had to know the numbers...

added: Because people I know in person have been so weird and insistent about my not knowing the names of the colors of any of the color I've been working with. But no one has been able to explain why they think its important.

Dragonharper · #8 2013-09-16, 11:02am

This is the big drawback to using shorts. They are a great bargain but you have no idea what you are dealing with unless you have the experience. Most folks buy the shorts to learn to use color. Kind of a catch 22. Rather than buy a bag of shorts I prefer to buy my color in 1/4 increments. I can get several colors AND I know what they are. The ones I like I buy more of.

rjohn7 · #9 2013-09-16, 11:07am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragonharper

This is the big drawback to using shorts. They are a great bargain but you have no idea what you are dealing with unless you have the experience. Most folks buy the shorts to learn to use color. Kind of a catch 22. Rather than buy a bag of shorts I prefer to buy my color in 1/4 increments. I can get several colors AND I know what they are. The ones I like I buy more of.

I really do not have the option of more than the short I bought at this point. My income just hit zero when I quit my sentence in hell. Until I find another source its shorts or nothing.

This as a draw back of shorts for learning color on makes a great deal of sense to me, I really think that is what everyone has been thinking and not saying- just assuming I thought of that. (I hadn't)

well I suppose I can post pics of paddles and ask unless people object.

R

James Lewis · #10 2013-09-17, 4:39am

When i started out with shorts i got posters from some of the color companys, heated the glass in a neutral flame and used light to identify which colors where the same and used the charts to find out the name of the color.Sunlight really helps to to see what the shorts base color was before i flamed them (just because it looks black without being flamed doesnt mean it is black, for a you know it could be some crazy purple flying hippo color). Then i made rods out of the shorts that where the same. This is what i did at least and it helped alot.

rjohn7 · #11 2013-09-17, 5:00am

interesting approach, I'll try that. I do have posters now.

R.

James Lewis · #12 2013-09-17, 5:41am

Helps get you started thinking more scientific when it comes to glass. Its all chemistry. Soon youll be identifing what minerals are in what glass and what happens when you combine them with something else. Its really a fun process.

Kalorlo · #13 2013-09-17, 7:08am

I enjoy colour testing and working out which colour is what if I don't know already, so yes, I make notes of everything I make and what was in it.

It can also be useful if you get incompatibilities or a bad batch of something - you know what combo to not try again! (I also keep different batches of the same colour separate and *try* to keep most things with at least one label on them with the date and where I got it from).

I have a whole load of Momka shorts on the way to me. I also have a labelled sampler pack of short rods of all the solid colours. So ideally I will have a decent chance of working out what most of the shorts are...

rjohn7 · #14 2013-09-17, 12:40pm

is there some place that sells Momka shorts?

Rough_necked · #15 2013-09-17, 1:20pm

I bought a few pounds from salt city glass a month ago.

Kalorlo · #16 2013-09-17, 3:14pm

That's where I ordered mine (and it looks like they just got through customs, yay!)

rjohn7 · #17 2013-09-17, 6:43pm

Thanks, I am going to look them up.

EchoTantuli · #18 2013-10-02, 5:43pm

Mine are all in a bucket, with only about 4 colors labeled(most recently bought)...so I burnt the ends of all of them just so I would have some idea of what they were. I wish I had labeled them, but I had already tortured a non glass person long enough at Frantz!!! Not a precise science here, more of crazy guess.