Hi. Maybe my shorts are a bit long coz I'm scared of burning my fingers but on average they are about 3.5 inches long. So far I have taken 2 the same colour and melted one end of each then melt them together, I always get a nobbly at the join and its never a straight rod but but at least I can use more of the glass that way.
I just wondered if there is a better way? I'd love to know what everyone else does with theirs as now I'm on a roll there will be loads of shorts soon!
Any advice appreciated
A short is a short when it is too hot to hold in your fingers, mine are about an inch. What you do is a good way to use up your shorts or of you are using a lot of the same colour then join it to a whole new rod. Alternatively if you are making a large bead that will need shaping and manipulation on the mandrel. melt the whole rod end in to your bead.
You could crush them for frit, fuse them together to make coasters (I've never tried this), make a pot melt (I've never tried this either) or use them to make twisties.
Perhaps I'm just a bit mad - but a lot of my shorts get down to well under 2". Depending on what the glass is - I stick them together to make a new knobbly rod, or just attach them to the end of a new rod. Ivory shorts tend to be made into silvered stringers.
I use a rod holder, start to melt the short rod onto the mandrel then let go of the rod and just turn the mandrel to melt it in. Other smaller bits I do melt together in the kiln and make window decorations and have bought a mould (but not the kiln wash ::) ) to cut and melt bits into small shapes for pendants/fridge magnets etc. My shorts are probably only an inch long, before the faff, because of the rod holder.
I'm with the stick them together people. Mine are about one and a half inches long.
I usually get down to about 1 inch before it gets chucked away :o I figure that most colours are around 40P per whole rod so I'm chucking away maybe 3 pence worth? Maths isn't my strongpoint though so feel free to tell me I've got it wrong :-\ Silver glass sits in a jar until I can be bothered to make it into frit?
If it is a basic colour like white or clear I just fuse it onto the end of the next rod, if it is a colour then I chuck it in my metal short bucket and use them for all sorts.
Quote from: Blue Box Studio on March 05, 2011, 09:37:03 AM
I use a rod holder, start to melt the short rod onto the mandrel then let go of the rod and just turn the mandrel to melt it in. Other smaller bits I do melt together in the kiln and make window decorations and have bought a mould (but not the kiln wash ::) ) to cut and melt bits into small shapes for pendants/fridge magnets etc. My shorts are probably only an inch long, before the faff, because of the rod holder.
Me too.. :)
Thanks everyone
Looks like my shorts are a tad too long then but I like the idea of fusing them on to a full rod, being dim I never even thought of that and have been waiting till I have 2 'shorts' to put together, I will introduce a 'process amendment'!
I also like the idea of a rod holder, I remember seeing on on a site but think it was quite expensive and I did the maths that it was cheaper to chuck the ends away but now I'm setting sights on fancier glass...
Are rod holders easy to use?
Hx
Mine go down to an inch or so, although, if a student is coming and I have to tidy up, anything under half a rod gets designated to the shorts pile - I regularly have a pile of shorts waiting to be fused together, which I do when I'm waiting for students. If I make a large bead, there never is a short, I just let the rod fall on the bead and melt it in. If it's a colour I don't use often, I'll fuse it to a full rod, or to a rod of clear to pull into stringer...and if I can't remember which colour it is, I use the 'drop it onto bead' method to use up in a focal. Oh, and if I desperately need more of the colour while I make a bead and can't be bothered to get up and get a fresh rod, I just hold it with tweezers - I can get down to less than 1/6 of an inch that way if I don't want to use the cut end (for transparent beads) - *that* short, I throw out ;D
I've got the "hold me tight", and find it easy to use...except the other day, when it couldn't have been in there properly and flew ;) out with speed!!!...
So....how do you use shorts for fusing? I always thought you had to use sheet glass? I have never fused but know the basics re glass, have a boxfull of shorts (glass not pants ;D), have a kiln, could possibly find a firing schedule on here somewhere....get where I'm going with this?? :D
I'm off to the fusing tutorials.... :-\
Mine are down to about 1 and a half inches handheld and about 1 inch with a rod holder. I frequently find myself going 'ow' as I get lost in the bead and not noticing how short the rod has got. I have tried sticking them together but the joint always seems to be too weak and I end up in a mess! Just have to train myself to throw them away - have quite a collection! :)
My shorts tend to be about 3cm long (just over an inch). I used to just chuck them in a bowl but now I have a special tool that helps me use them until they are about 1cm long.
This is the tool : Click Here (http://www.etsy.com/listing/39026944/graceful-studios-hold-me-tight-rod)
I bought my rod holder from etsy, it was about £12 with postage. Any ends I have left I make into twisties, a white paddle, lay the shorts on side by side, melt and twist. Cheap and cheerful.
All my rods end up the length that used to be taken up by the label. (no rod holders for me there.)
I have loads sat in a draw waiting, would like to get a frit masher and make my own.
I have used an entire rod on occasion, I have an old pair of pliers that are to big for me to use to make jewellery and they became the ones I used to hold the mandrel to get the beads off then I realised that they could take the flame so started using them to hold a short so I could use every last bit of glass, can usually get a few spacers out of a short so handy when you realise you didn't make any and all you have is a short.
few of my more pricier glasses get stuck on the end of the next rod.
I keep thinking I should get a rod holder, but I frequently use them down to an inch or just over with my fingers so I'm not sure theres much point.
I stick my 1" bits of DH onto clear and pull into stringer, then leave it on my desk, forget what it is and use it by accident on something that I wasnt meant to ::)
(however, I have a cunning plan for the new workshop to stop me doing this...it involves test tubes!)
I tend to gather my shorts into a tin, sort them into bags of colours and then...erm, ignore them!
occasionally I will go through and stick them together and use them. I'm not too bad at joining them it seems, maybe its a practice thing, cause they used to be very knobbly!
think I need to go looking in there for EDP cause its getting desperate!!
the only glass I will throw away is scummy ends, frit and bead releasey scuzzyness off my desk, or bits that are stuck to bead release, also the bits that I chip off the mandrels I use for pulling canes.
everything else is kept because 'maybe I will use it one day' ::)
i have a rod holder and if its too short for the holder they get divided up in to colours and then used in landscape beads etc where accurracy of placement of colours is not an issue ...i just chuck em on and melt !
My shorts get down to the length of the label setting on fire!! Consequentially I have extremely short finger nails on those fingers and sore finger ends most of the time! I put all my shorts in a big jar to connect to a longer rod but never actually remember to do this. I currently have 3 jars of shorts...... ;)
Quote from: Rikki on March 05, 2011, 01:19:16 PM
. I currently have 3 jars of shorts...... ;)
I have a whole biscuit tin!
Respect! an inch away from the flame!! Wow...
I'm not sure I will ever get that close being of nerbous disposition and I have a slight problem which means my hands are not always so steady so maybe its safer if I'm just a weeny bit further away! That rod holder is looking great, not anywhere as expensive as I thought so I might just treat myself when I sell my next few bits
Thank you all so much, I'm learning so much on here from all of you its just fab!
Hx
I do have a bobcat, maybe that is something to do with it...wouldnt be doing that on a HH!
And why is it that the labels catch fire so easily? I had quite a little bonfire going this afternoon after Iput a hot rod down on the label of another rod. No amount of blowing woulod put it out, just fanned the flames, but darn if I was giving up on the bead I was working on! Fortunately I have a metal sheet under the torch. I think someone should invent easy to remove flameproof labels.
I might add, that just because I can use down to an inch, generally I don't,(very lazy and bad) my shorts are mainly 3 or 4 inch.
I went into my shorts tin just now,(amazingly well sorted,lots of the colours are baggied together with their short siblings...must have been feeling organised that day) only about 4" of EDP, but about 2/3 rod of gold pink!woo! and about a whole rod of neon green, and half of krytonite...er...naughty me.oh, and a 2inch bit of the freakish batch of rubino that was sort of semi opaque, which I loved, and didn't realise was 'wrong' until I'd used nearly all of it doh!
think my beading evening goes like this now 'make a bead, stick a couple of rods together, make a bead, stick a couple of rods together'
Hi
When I use a rod for the first time I pull some of the molten glass into a 1-2" long stringer of about 1mm. I then use this as a handle when I am down to the end of the rod, sometimes I melt it all into the bead I am making, sometimes it goes in the quencher :)
I also have a rod holder, which I am thinking of putting up for sale, but have just not got round to it yet.
You'll find your own way, of course, everyone has their 'own way'- good luck !
Sarah
Quote from: Princess Peggy on March 05, 2011, 01:49:52 PM
Quote from: Rikki on March 05, 2011, 01:19:16 PM
. I currently have 3 jars of shorts...... ;)
I have a whole biscuit tin!
Pah! I laugh at your jars and biscuit tins - I have 3 DRAWERS full of odds and sods!!! But I do use them every day!!!
I have a box of shortish shorts to give away to a newbie at Flame Off if anyone wants to claim it?
Kazx
Quote from: Sarah9959 on March 05, 2011, 08:42:40 PM
I also have a rod holder, which I am thinking of putting up for sale, but have just not got round to it yet.
Let me know if you are thinking of selling....
Hx
I use all my shorts, mainly by adding them to the next rod of the same colour. If you don't like the knobby bit, just wait a few seconds and pull very slowly and gently. You can always use either tweezers or small pliers to hold the short so you don't burn your fingers when making a larger bead and adding a short to it and melting in.
Quote from: Kaz on March 05, 2011, 08:44:37 PM
Quote from: Princess Peggy on March 05, 2011, 01:49:52 PM
Quote from: Rikki on March 05, 2011, 01:19:16 PM
. I currently have 3 jars of shorts...... ;)
I have a whole biscuit tin!
Pah! I laugh at your jars and biscuit tins - I have 3 DRAWERS full of odds and sods!!! But I do use them every day!!!
I have a box of shortish shorts to give away to a newbie at Flame Off if anyone wants to claim it?
Kazx
Hi if no one has claimed this already, I would be interested in claiming it as a newby. Thanks
my 2 flattish tins full of shorts become insignificant then! ;D
I use them for pulling stringers and twisties, that way I can leave the stringer/twistie on the rod and thus avoid ending up with a jar full of stringer shorts too :-) I also use them as punties when pulling stringer or twistie from a full rod, again so that I can leave a handle. And one of these days I'll chuck samples in the kiln and see which are suitable for fusing (I know some can go dull).