Some tips on finding answers about beads

[Kalera]

Because this has been such a volatile issue lately, I thought I'd start a separate thread in which people can post their tips and opinions about the best way that they think people can get the answers they're looking for without crossing the lines of copyright or courtesy.

I think the biggest problem I see is people not knowing how to ask for what they want. They're not familiar with the vocabulary that describes certain techniques, so they post a picture of a bead and ask "how do I do this?". We all know what happens next...

Instead of "flying blind", as it were, my heartiest suggestion for people seeking techniques to work on is to:

1. READ A BOOK. Yes, I said it! I am not saying that this is the best way to learn, because it's not, but what it will do is help give you the vocabulary you need to ask the right questions, so you are conveying what you really need to learn, and no one will interpret your question to mean that you want to copy someone's bead style.

2. USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION. It may seem intimidating, but odds are not too bad that there already are answers on the board for just what you want to know, often with many replies giving tips on how to get it just right, and other useful information.

3. EXPERIMENT ON YOUR OWN. People really respect that you put time and effort into trying to learn something before asking for their hard-earned knowledge which they acquired through time and effort. You will get more answers if you mention that you've already tried to find the answers on your own. If you post pictures of your failed experiments, you won't believe how many people will chime in trying to help you!

If you see a bead and you're just dying to know how it's made,

4. ASK THE ARTIST. The best way to approach that, in my opinion, is to say "I'm really intrigued by x effect, do you mind sharing what that's called, or how you do it?" It might be a common technique with a name you can research once you know it, or they may even be willing to tell you how to do it. However, be aware that many people are protective of their techniques, which often cost them a great deal in terms of experimentation and wasted glass, and they rely on being able to sell their unique look to make a living... they may choose not to share, and that is both fair AND reasonable.

5. POST A LINK to beads that display a technique you're interested in, and ask what it's called and whether there is information about it available. Again, once you have a name for it, you can ask for help doing it, or use the search to try to find other threads about it. Please don't post other people's pictures on the board! It is not allowed by copyright law, and it feels bad and disrespectful to most people when their pictures are used without permission.

Lastly, it is good to keep in mind that the people you are appealing to for answers are just as busy as you, have just as many kids, just as hard of a job, just as little spare money and spare time to experiment with, and, in very many cases, had to learn everything they know BEFORE there were books and forums to learn from. Some people learned how to do certain techniques in classes that they scrimped and saved for or charged to credit cards... even though they couldn't really afford to... and had to travel across the country and sometimes across the PLANET to take. So if they share some of their hard-earned knowledge, PLEASE SAY THANK-YOU!

That's all I have... anyone else want to post their tips?

[tiggybubba]

No tips but BRAVA!!!!!

Actually I do have a tip. When you find something interesting and you want to keep it for later, copy and paste into a word document and save it to your hard drive in a tutorial folder.

[Jayne]

Great tips, Kalera! I'd like to add:

- Buy a tutorial or DVD; some tuts are free. Check out other beadmakers websites for them. Check glass vendors' sites & ETSY, too.
- Take a class if offered nearby; so much fun and so much to learn
- Search the web for the many free video tuts that are out there. You may not find what you're looking for, but guaranteed you'll find tons of other mind-bending info!

[LeahBeads]

So if they share some of their hard-earned knowledge, PLEASE SAY THANK-YOU!

Way to go, Kalera!

That's such a big deal in my book. I don't know how many times I've gone out of my way to help someone and I don't even get a simple "Thanks." It's just common curtesy!

Leah

[SunDoorBeads]

I would like to say thank you for posting this. I have learned a lot here but I am more than happy to pay for online tutorials and respect the time it has taken me to learn I have even offered to pay another artist for her time in teaching me something online when I first started she was so shocked that she sent me the email with the instructions free of charge and thanked me for loving her technique so much I would be willing to pay for it. I must say that I READ,READ,READ and it is truly a great way to learn. My advice for people who have not read enough is to check the tutorials online here and etsy you can learn some great basic knowledge and some great techniques. The authors and artists who do these also answer your questions and help you perfect the technique just like in a class so help out the little guys and buy the Tut!!!!!!! I hope this thread stays so that ALL lampwork artists can enjoy success through practice and hard work.

[suzanne]

excellent points Kalera

[twiggyinaz]

This deserves an excellent rating!

[swamper]

Could someone make a sticky of this? Good post.

[Kalera]

Thanks!

[Karen Hardy]

Another good tip.

When you come across a thread that you like (any thread! A tutorial, or
a discussion, etc) there is the option to "subscribe to thread" at the top
of the page when you are in the thread.

You can pick the notifications (weekly, monthly or no notification) for
whenever someone updates the thread.

What this lets you do is see how a subject develops. I'm subscribed to
several threads - one example is on "how people use silver glass".
Every time someone posts a new tip, I get an email and I can try out the new tip.

It's a great tool!!

[PixieFireBeads]

What a great thread and great suggestions. Thanks Kalera for being the voice of sanity even though your beads are insanely beautiful.

[Kalera]

Awww! :blush: Thank you!

[Kalera]

Great tip, Karen!

[PaulaD]

Thank You for taking the time to post this.

Paula

[BeadMaven]

Great post Kalera, well done!

[paminmd]

Thank you Kalera & others. I know that I have been grateful for all of the good infomation on this site. I don't know if its just me, being a forum novice, but I have tried to search so many things, on the search feature, and have only gotten any "hits" on rare occasion. Typically, I get a error message that is something like " The search term you specified (BE) is under the minimum word length (3) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer.
If this term contains a wildcard, please make this term more specific."

Maybe people try to search for specific info and also get the same result.
Pam

[Karen Hardy]

Not to fret. I'm an "oldbee" and I still have troubles using
the search option occasionally.

Sometimes it's because I spell something wrong.

Sometimes it's because you chunderheads spelled something wrong .

Sometimes it's because no one can agree on the spelling (is it "GLASSSTOCK"
or "GLASS STOCK"?).

Sometimes it's because I just don't know the exact name of what I'm
looking for ("Hey, anybody know how to do that thing where the bead
is kind of whumped onto one side, but wangled at the ends"?).

[parisgal]

Or there's a bit of punctuation - you're looking for "resource" but what you're looking for is "resource!" or "resource?"

[Kevan]

Youtube has lots of videos of beadmaking in case people don't know that.

[Janine]

Excellent post and additions. This needs to be a stickie.

[Lara]

Great post Kalera.

I also want to suggest that if you are new to the board, spend several days/weeks reading the board/newsgroup/forum/etc. See what is accepted and what is not. See how the people post. Make sure it is a group you want to participate in.

[squid]

Originally Posted by paminmd

Thank you Kalera & others. I know that I have been grateful for all of the good infomation on this site. I don't know if its just me, being a forum novice, but I have tried to search so many things, on the search feature, and have only gotten any "hits" on rare occasion. Typically, I get a error message that is something like " The search term you specified (BE) is under the minimum word length (3) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer.
If this term contains a wildcard, please make this term more specific."

Maybe people try to search for specific info and also get the same result.
Pam

If you want to search on a 3 letter word like EDP or something similar, search for the word EDP* - the star makes it 4 "letters" and it will find any thread with EDP in it.

[DesertDreamer]

I'm still going to say "PLEASE don't be afraid to ask questions, right here in this forum!!!" If someone doesn't want to share, they don't have to. Hopefully they can say no politely. We were all new once, and we all asked questions. IMO the only "bad" or "dumb" (etc.) question is the one that goes unasked.

[SunDoorBeads]

Thank you Karen check out my posts on the ripple bead thread they are the last 2 ( I think) I wrote here first and I still stand behind what I said but come on already you are right if you don't ask then you won't know and I am sure since we are all adults here we can forgive a mistake- There are some people who should be reprimanded for their bashing- like a 2 way street don't do certain things like copyright enfringement but when someone ESPECIALLY a Newbie asks a question and God forbid accidently post a pic that is not theirs don't go over board like in the Ripple thread. The first person to catch it PM the OP and it's done no need for 3 pages of nonsense. As for some people getting upset about asking questions and the people who answer them I am proud to answer a question and ask one- I have had to sweetly tell someone "It's my little secret" a time or two but we had a laugh over it and it has inspired me to make a tut- Bottom line there is a right way and a wrong way to approach touchy subjects but asking a question never hurt anything or anybody you're right if you don't want to give up your secret don't post!!!

[pinkcb]

Thanks Karen for saying that. I'm a real noob and these posts have not been giving me a warm fuzzy.

[DesertDreamer]

I don't want to make anyone feel bad. But (ya knew that was coming) I get a little dismayed by some of the protectionism going on. I'm so not a teacher in the usual sense, but I enjoy sharing what I've learned, and I've deeply appreciated everything I've learned from others' sharing in classes, in person and online in my 11 years of bead making. I wouldn't be able to make one quarter of what I do these days without all the shared wisdom around me.

I do understand, and appreciate, those times when someone wants to say "this is mine, I figured it out and I want time to run with it on my own first." There's nothing wrong with that. I just think that we need to use some tact, at times, and to remember what it was like when we were new, and excited, and didn't know what or how to ask what we wanted to know sometimes. In reference to the Ripple thread, without a picture I'm not sure I could have helped since I don't call them gravity beads. A simple picture is worth a thousand words or so.

[SunDoorBeads]

Again well said Karen I can't tell you how many times I asked a question and someone said do you have a pic of the bead you admired? I guess I should rephrase something i said in the Ripple Thread now that i have read your last post- I am self taught never took a class until I met Dawn and most of the information i found in books which I spent a great deal of money on. But I did learn a plethera of knowledge here and I have to say that a vast % of my work reflects that knowledge that allowed me to grow as an artist. All of the work I sell is my own I have learned the technique from written words and the gracious mentoring of Dawn (Raku Dawn) I think that in our line of work you should be commended from being able to reproduce something from just simple words- it's not easy!!! However if you have learned a SPECIFIC technique from an artist who makes a living teaching, creating and selling it then it is wrong- However if a person figures it out on their own through PPP then I do not believe any wrong has been done after all THEIR time and effort went into it and they put just as much of themselves so if they want to share their personal knowledge and gain it should be up to them after all they did not violate anothers hard effort.

[SunDoorBeads]

An adendum to my previous post is this- If your explanation of something word for word copies another then we can safely bet you probably shared information that belongs to someone else. Again I think this is wrong but if you share HOW YOU DID SOMETHING even if the end results are identical to someone elses the technique you found out is yours to share. That is what Kevan did in learning the Copper Mesh Tech now known as Chaos- Originally it is Copper Mesh and anyone finding a way to do this other than Sherry's has the right to post it, However Chaos and her technique are copywritten. Technically Kevan could post saying from now on no one can use her info from that post cuz she developed it. Hope this helps clarify some important points and makes life easier for all

[DianaDesigns]

Just like to add that saying all artists care when someone uses their picture here or anywhere else, is assuming. Do you speak for ALL bead makers???? Not for me you don't.

I don't give a hoot as a matter of fact I would be happy to see it.

So for those newbs who find any of my beads intriguing enough to want to pick apart the bead and ask how something was done....by all means go right ahead.

No hard feelings here. I will tell you ALL I know, if I can remember..lol

However Chaos and her technique are copywritten

Wow, then I guess a lot of people who have bought the tut and made beads and sold them on ebay and other sites are subject to a big big law suit?

Scarey shit.

[Kalera]

Nobody can speak for you but you... which is why it's a good idea for people to ask the artist. Nobody can know how the artist will feel about it until they ask them.

One thing that is very helpful for beginners is the free tutorials... lots of people have made them, and I think they're great. If you have beads that you'd like to share your techniques of, IMO the best way to do so is to post a tut.

What I think Michelle is saying about the tuts being copyrighted is that the TEXT is copyrighted, so no one but the author can legally duplicate the TEXT in answer to a question. That is an important consideration.

If it is at all possible, I'd like this to remain more of a "DO" than a "DON'T" thread. I think the "don'ts" are important for people to know as well, but the more information is here on the BEST ways to find information, the better.