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Tips, Techniques, and Questions -- Technical questions or tips

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  #1  
Old 2011-08-23, 8:51pm
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Default What you make vs what you love

I really like organics and the beautiful silver glass beads that many artists here make. However when I sit down at the torch I never reach for the silver glass. I end up making tons of critters. I just started playing with Locos dragon tut and I can't stop making dragons. I love it. So I was just wondering if anyone else felt the same way. Maybe this is just a stage in my development as a glass artist or maybe I will branch out more as I get better.

Caroline
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  #2  
Old 2011-08-23, 9:17pm
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I'm a total brat and make what I love most always. It seems to vibrate around the ocean and nature. Currently making tropical bird feathers ;-D
Keep doing what you love and it will travel with as you increase your time behind the torch.
Samma
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  #3  
Old 2011-08-24, 12:05am
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I do love what I make, and I enjoy the process, its just that sculptural work was not what initally attracted me to lampworking. But its now what I love to do most (so far!)
Caroline
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  #4  
Old 2011-08-24, 12:08am
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I was attracted by sculptural work initially too but most of the beads I make I melt everything flat on. Go figure. Mind you, that could also have to do with my frustration of bits flying off as well.
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  #5  
Old 2011-08-24, 2:51am
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I totally fell in love with florals made by Kristen Frantzen Orr (my all time favorite bead artist), Leah Fairbanks, Kim Fields, and the other greats, and "knew" those would be the type I would always make and always love making. Huh, didn't happen. I've made thousands, and it's ok, but not great fun. My florals are not fantastic, but it's not just sour grapes, really . However, I love making organics - swirling SIS, browns, ivories, opal yellow, fossil, river rock (omg), and all those fabulous earthtone colors together, swirling them with gravity, and generally making rock-like beads. It's odd, but fun!
Cheryl
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  #6  
Old 2011-08-24, 4:31am
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I never would have taken up lampworking if I hadn't opened up a book and seen a bead by Michael Barley. I literally said to myself, "I NEED to learn how to do that!". I fell in love with those gorgeous, organic creations and they're still the kind of bead I most like to look at, to make and to collect from other people.

I was never drawn to florals of any kind and never put any effort into learning how to make them. Yet, ironically, my Fairy Flower beads are the ones I make and sell the most of. Go figure...

~Laurie
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  #7  
Old 2011-08-25, 7:27pm
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I will get obsessed with something - hearts, cats, fish, florals, and make them, well, obsessively. Then I get over it and don't make another one for a year. My silver glass series is the one with the longest run. I make two or three just about every time I torch and I don't get tired of them.

Lately I have felt like making sets and pairs, so that is what I have been doing. I can make one focal in 20 minutes and sell it for about the same as a set that takes an hour, but I have to do what I love, otherwise it's just another job.
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"And all will turn to silver glass, a light on the water, grey ships pass into the west." Annie Lennox
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  #8  
Old 2011-08-25, 9:39pm
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I was drawn to lampworking by beads that are totally not the style I make. I have found I love making organic beads. Oddly enough the ones I used to like just don't appeal to me anymore.
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  #9  
Old 2011-08-26, 3:30am
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I make whatever is easiest for me, looks good, and sells fast. Time is money and this is my job so... One day I may be able to explore and enjoy wasting time and glass again. lol
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  #10  
Old 2011-08-26, 3:36am
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I learned long ago to make what I love

I'm a good cook and I turned that into a career - killed the fun in it
I loved making preserves and I turned that into a business - that killed the fun too
I loved making jewellery, turned that into a business too, bad idea, I seem to have a problem with learning my lessons

So now I torch for fun, make whatever strikes my fancy at the time and enjoy myself a if it sells that's cool but I rarely make stuff on purpose to sell these days
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  #11  
Old 2011-08-26, 10:02am
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I do make what I like. I've found doing custom orders is miserable. If I sit at the torch and make things that I don't like, torching starts to become not so fun. But if I can sit at my torch and just create- well that's when the magic begins for me.
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  #12  
Old 2011-08-26, 10:46am
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I make what I love.......just happens that it sells LOL I do take custom orders alot and MOST times I dont' mind doing it at all. Did have a customer that changed her mind repeatedly and drove me nuts but she was doing things to others I found in a thread here. Other than that.....custom is great and making what I love works out great.
I think if making all the colorful beads that I make didn't sell well and I had to do other stuff to sell I would end up being miserable.
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  #13  
Old 2011-08-27, 10:34pm
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I haven't even attempted to sell anything yet. I am rather intimidated by the whole process of photographing and pricing my work. I have Kevans tut but I haven't worked with it much yet! I do make what I love. I just thought I would love doing different stuff.
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  #14  
Old 2011-08-27, 10:40pm
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For awhile I tried making what I thought would sell vs. what I love and I was miserable. I finally decided if I was going to do something just for the money, it wouldn't be beadmaking.


Andrea
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  #15  
Old 2011-08-28, 6:13am
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When I first started with glass, I was mostly interested in making marbles, lol. I think I'm just about the opposite now. I can't handle spending an hour making a blob of glass into one perfectly round shape. I still love marbles, but I'll leave those to the John Kobukis of the world, lol. Gimme da sculpture!

ETA: I will say, I really would love to have a couple of weeks or even longer to finish each piece (larger, more involved pieces), and to be able to get what I need for it. I think some day that will happen via galleries, but right now I have to make abbreviated versions of what I really love, because I still have to pay my bills
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Last edited by pipyr; 2011-08-28 at 6:16am.
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