How do people use shorts and how short is a short?

[ScarletLeonard]

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.

[MadelineBunyan]

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'

[sarah t]

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 !

[Rikki]

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......

[Princess Peggy (Priscilla McGirr)]

. I currently have 3 jars of shorts......

I have a whole biscuit tin!

[Enchanted Cobwebs]

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

[MadelineBunyan]

I do have a bobcat, maybe that is something to do with it...wouldnt be doing that on a HH!

[Blue Box Studio]

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.

[MadelineBunyan]

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'

[Sarah9959]

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

[Kaz]

. 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

[Enchanted Cobwebs]

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

[Pat from Canvey]

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.

[Sarah A]

. 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

[jammie]

my 2 flattish tins full of shorts become insignificant then!