Join me in a 40 bead challenge?

[Veeka]

Hope this works!!

[MadelineBunyan]

Well done Helen! *high fives* they look fab, love how all the different colours look different not only for the oclour, but the behaviour of the glass.

Moira, you're doing great with that tricky pairing

Veeka, those are so lovely and crisp! much better colour choice than mine!

I have finished!!!


other pics on the blog again.

[helbels]

If you haven't yet done the 40 bead challenge Part 1 , might I suggest that you go and check out that first: http://www.frit-happens.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=42626.0

This thread is for those who now fancy doing the 40 bead challenge part 2!!!

The rules for Part 2 of the challenge are as follows:

1.  You must make 40 beads using only THREE colours  (In the original challenge, these had to be opaques, but in Part 2 you can use silver glass and transparents if you wish - it's up to you how "faithful" you want to be to the original challenge rules).  You can only use DOTS as your decorative element on the bead surface, and all dots must be melted in flat.   Each bead must be unique, and you can only make 1 bead per mandrel.
2.  The beads must be made using NO TOOLS except a marver.  It is ok to use tools to pull stringers BEFORE you start.
3.  Beads must be between 1/2 inch to 1 inch diameter, and in Part 2 of the challenge, you are aiming to achieve the best size consistency you can across the strand.
4.  Beads must not be made all in a single day.  Ideally, make 5-6 beads a session, as you will learn as you go along.
5. You can use whatever size mandrels you have, but the ideal is 3mm.
6. String each bead onto cord in the order you make them.  Post pictures here as your strand grows!

No time limit, make them at your own pace.

Once you have decided on your three colours (testing is recommended!), let me know your name and what you have chosen and I'll update this thread accordingly.

The original details of Heather's 40 bead challenge can be found here:http://www.heathertrimlett.com/40-beads/index.htm


Participants:

Yellow Friend (Sheila) - Wine red, sky blue and acid yellow
Helbels (Helen) - CIM Lapis, Vetrofond Pajama Blue & Reichenbach Deep Black
Moira HFG - white, light grey, and Reich Pink Lady

[JaySpangles]

Please post photos of your finished 40 bead challenge strands here.  Can you add details of the colours you used, and any issues you may have had, and any useful lesson learned.
I haven't finished mine yet so can't start it off.

[MadelineBunyan]

ok, I'll be first, not that I was first to finish, and not that this is in any way a race



colours: light turquoise and purple 272

main lesson...less is very often more!

issues: picking up the wrong coloured stringer (grr celadon and dark turquoise!) shoulda tidied my desk a bit better!

more thoughts as I went along on my blog, link in sig.

[helbels]

Here are mine:

IMG_0091 by Alchemy Lampwork, on Flickr

Colours used:  CIM Adamantium Unique and CIM Key Lime Pie

Lessons learned:  It's hard to make lots of small dots close together look neat and tidy.   Generally, a sparse pattern is more pleasing to the eye than a complex one.   There's a point of no return where adding more dots just produces a messy bead.   Flaws on a single bead are very noticeable, but in a strand, they don't show up as much 

Issues experienced:  On a couple of beads I overestimated how much the size of the bead would grow as the result of using lots of dots.  This led to a couple of small beads.

[Moira HFG]

I do love the variety of beads here - all lovely!

Here's a few more:

40 beads 29 to 33 by sleepychamaeleon, on Flickr

[Yellow friend]

Sun is shining - so have taken a couple of pics of the first 2 batches. Now I know you can have a transparent or silvered glass, I might have a go at those options too - even if its only for me.
[/URL[URL=http://s989.photobucket.com/user/crocosmia60/media/IMG_5686.jpg.html]

Theres sooo many possibilities
Shelia

[Yellow friend]

I used sage green & carrot red, not sure why but they didn't react too much & I wanted a different combination to what I would normally use. 

Lessons learnt - I started too small.  As the string evolved my beads all became somewhat round but I'm ok with that and the sizing became more consistent.  I never have been good at keeping a donut shape. So if you want round but unaided by tools.
This may be like sucking eggs for some but I hope this may be useful for newbies. This is how I got the sizing about right. Make the core perfect by laying an even amount of glass, i.e. 2 wraps wide, or 2 small beads side by side, continuous steady spinning but take it out of the heat for it to firm up, keep it level, don't overheat the core afterwards.  Then adding a bit to the middle to fatten it up. You don't want pointy ends - if you do then redistribute the glass by heating the ends and holding the mandrel at 45 deg angle, when the glass starts to move - take it out of the heat but keep spinning until it firms up. If it starts to droop take it out of the heat but keep spinning. When you're happy with the shape and the colour is back - start decorating.

I didn't have too much problem with coming up with different designs. I didn't plan too much as this never works for me anyway.  You can have 2,3,4,5 or 6 dots around the middle, 2 sets of parallels, overlaying, bi colour bases. Heating as hot as you dare can bring some interesting results too.
Whatever - I found this a lot of fun & a very useful exercise coming from someone who mainly does focals & organics.  And now does dots

Shelia

[helbels]

Here are my first 8, hope to be making the second 8 today, then that will be it until next weekend.   I am pretty pleased with them so far, they are fairly consistent of size, some are slightly "Flat" at the end rather than truly round, but I will work on that:

IMG_0092 by Alchemy Lampwork, on Flickr

[jeannette]

So here is my 4th session, not so happy with the dots, but by some fluke they are relatively evenly spaced!


Day4 by Jeannette Copeland, on Flickr

[DementedMagpie]

They look pretty good to me, too!

Here's my first lot. The results of Friday's colour testing by which I decided on the colours are on the left, the other five are yesterday's batch.
So far:
- Size and shape are not perfect, but pretty good by my standards. Having a "size reference" bead in front of me definitely helps.
- I still can't do neat stripes on purpose; I will attempt to improve this in the course of this challenge. Dot placement, however, has definitely got better this year.
- When coming up with the other designs, consideration should be given to the slightly streaky quality of the turquoise. As can be seen in the middle bead, this affects the effectiveness of "masking" techniques.

[Dragonfire Glass]

Here are my second batch

13-26 by Dragonfire Glass, on Flickr

Quite a lot of size variation but for now I'm concentrating on dot placement. I'll work on size next ...

[Glassy Lou]

I'm loving all the colour combos and the fact that so many people are taking part.
I've fallen behind somewhat thought I'd have a bit of a catch up this weekend.
Here are 15-24 - phew, past the halfway mark. I'm relatively happy with these - particularly because I've managed to get them all the same size or thereabouts. I suspect my pattern originality will start to wobble soon. I'm learning some really important things though so I'm keeping a list.

day3 by GlassyLou, on Flickr

[Essex Girl]

I would like to join this challenge please.  I have chosen medium lapis and periwinkle (because I have lots of each!).
This is my first batch of 5 and you can see why I need this challenge  . There are problems with size, shape and dot placement.

40bead1 by Essexgirl100, on Flickr
Can anyone tell me why the lapis has gone horrible in the last 2 beads?

This is my second batch, not much improvement  but at least the colour hasn't changed

40bead2 by Essexgirl100, on Flickr
At the rate I am going this is going to take until Xmas!