|
|
|
|
Frequently Asked QuestionsHow do I place an order for custom beads? How do you find lampworking teachers or classes in your area? What kind of torch and kiln do you have? Where do you purchase your supplies? What do you use the spice racks for in your studio? What do you use for your glass storage and how are they fastened together? How do you take your pictures and what kind of camera do you have? How do you track your business expenses and income? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How do I place an order for custom beads? Think about what you would like to have made, your favorite style or color. What will you make with them, a bracelet or necklace? How many beads would you like in your set? Then if you have a budget let me know that too. When you have an idea of what you would like contact me through email at kikibead@attbi.com with your ideas. I will respond to you as quickly as possible, usually the same day. We may need to trade a few emails so that we both know what is expected and to narrow down the final designs. Once we are both confident in the order I will send you a firm quote via email with information about delivery time, payment options and details about the final set. After you confirm your order I will get them made usually within 1-2 weeks and send email when I have shipped them. How do you find lampworking teachers or classes in your area? What I usually suggest you do to find a lampworking teacher is to call all of the stained glass shops within driving distance. You might get lucky and find one that has a studio and teacher. When I began my search I decided that a 100 mile radius was my driving limit. I found three locations with classes. The closest I had already surpassed with my own practicing. The next closest had a small studio with a great resident teacher and invited visiting teachers on a regular basis. The third location was actually a glass supplier that I didn't know about. They had a marvelous, huge studio where they had many invited national teachers each year. If you are unable to find a local class then you will need to decide how badly you really want a class. I personally think you can learn quite a bit from several really good books on the market. I'm primarily self taught through books. I've only taken two classes. If you truly want a class then look into the larger cities in your area. Maybe within 4-6 hours drive. Most large cities will have a class of some sort. The next step would be to travel to one of the larger studios such as "Glass Craft" or "Arrow Springs". They have nationally recognized teachers and are set up for out of town visitors. Save your pennies and go for it! What kind of torch and kiln do you have? My first torch was the Hot Head which I think I out grew in the first month. I then purchased a "Minor" torch by Nortel mainly because of the price and because everyone I talked to said that was the torch they used. I still use that torch 98% of the time. Since that purchase I also have acquired a "Major" torch by Nortel for larger boro work and glass blowing. It has a much larger and hotter flame and is overkill for the soft glass that I normally use so it isn't used very much. I also have on order the "Lynx" by Glass Torch Technology. This is a step up from the "Minor". I'll give more information about it after I receive it and work with it for a while. My kiln is model AF-99 from Arrow Springs. This is a studio kiln which doesn't travel well. It is made from fire brick rather then fire blanket material. The fire brick is much better insulation and this sort of kiln will maintain its temperature for a longer period of time which means that it cools at a slower rate. There is less of a shock to your beads during the cooling process when it take longer. The other reason I purchased this kiln was for the expandability. I can add extra height if I wish to make perfume bottles or goblets. I can also purchase a shelf and other accessories if I want to do fusing. It has a flip-up front door so that beads are easy to load. Also it has a full lid that allows easy loading for fusing when the kiln is cold. Where do you purchase your supplies? I uses several suppliers. Each has their own set of supplies. I guess it depends on what I am looking for. You will find quite a bit of overlap for the basic supplies, however, each carries different lines of glass and accessories. These are the three that I purchase from most of the time. Frantz Art Glass Arrow Springs Glasscraft, Inc. What do you use the spice racks for in your studio? It seems funny to be asked about these because they were sort of an after thought. But, they are really handy for storing and using all of the enamels and pixie dusts. I keep a different bottle for each of the Thompson Enamels on two of the racks. On the other rack is a bottle for each color of Pixie Dust. This style of rack is great because it doesn't take a large amount of shelf space and they turn easily so that I can find the color quickly. I have them sorted by color so all of the colors are together in groups. All of the bottles are glass, not plastic. Plastic melts much to easily for how I use the containers. When I use the powders I don't like to pour them out. They actually should be used with a respirator because of the tiny particles. To use them I just unscrew the cap, tilt the bottle and then insert the hot bead into the bottle and gently roll the hot bead in the powder to pick up the color. This prevents any from escaping into the air. You have to be a little careful to not get it onto the mandrel but other then that it works really well. Also, be careful not to touch the bottle with the hot bead. The bottle is made of glass and the hot bead can actually stick to the glass. Then you have a minor problem....a bottle full of powder with a bead stuck to the inside. Not a good thing! What do you use for your glass storage and how are they fastened together? My rod storage is actually a design I came up with a while back. When I redesigned my studio I needed a more effective and organized way of storing all of the colors of glass rods. I went and visited one of my favorite stores....Home Depot. I found PVC gutter downspouts that didn't cost too much. I cut them into 13 inch lengths with my power miter saw (don't try this with a hand saw, it would take forever!). Then I made lots of measurements. I built the shelving unit from 2x4's and plywood so that the down spout sections fit perfectly with pressure into the opening. This way I can easily rearrange when it is necessary without having to deal with glue or screws. I built these to be expandable. Initially the top shelf was for glass and the bottom shelf was storage. As I need more glass storage all I will do is buy more down spouting and cut it up. The second shelf is also sized for the down spouting and they just slip in as necessary. This idea could be made in any size. So, take measurements of your area and build yourself a rack. Just be sure that it goes through doors and around corners. Mine didn't when I built it. So, in the middle of the living room I was removing screws so that it would go down the stairs and into the basement. How do you take your pictures and what kind of camera do you have? I have a rather fancy camera, a Fuji 6900 digital. I picked this camera for a number of reasons. When I was shopping for my camera I took beads along with me and had the salesperson take pictures and show them to me on their computer. I looked for ease of use, color concentration and accuracy, fine focusing and then if it would be upgradeable. Did it take an external flash? Could it use other lenses? And questions like that. I also wanted a camera that looked like a camera. What I mean by this is was it like the SLR type cameras. Did it have a real lens, was it comfortable to hold and were the buttons in the right place. Womens hands are smaller then mens. Did it fit me right? I didn't want one of those flat pocket cameras. They just weren't steady enough for good closeups. Most of my pictures are taken in the evening, inside. I use three light sources including and Ott light, a fluorescent light and then the camera flash. This gives me a good balance of various lights so that I avoid the yellowing that is easy to get with only one light source. The background is just a piece of white printer paper. This give me a nice neutral background which doesn't distract from the beads. After the pictures are loaded into my computer I will crop them to the right size and if necessary adjust the brightness. The program I use is PaintShop Pro for any adjustments. I will also resize the pictures so that they fit my Ebay format. This is a rather fancy program for the features that I have used in it. I don't know half of what it does yet! How do you track your business expenses and income? For those of you who are just getting started with your bead business this is a major step. When I began I kept a written ledger showing all of my expenses and income. Fairly simple and it did work as long as I wrote everything down. But then as I became busier it simply didn't work any longer. Still the struggling artist who really couldn't afford to buy a big, fancy tracking program I decided to design a data base with the information I needed to keep track of my business. I have two data bases, one for expenses and the other for sales. When I need a total I just run reports from each database and then subtract the expenses from the sales to get a current income number. These are written in Microsoft Works which has a simple database capability. For expenses I record simple information like date, vendor, description and amount spent. The sales database is a bit more involved. It really doesn't have to be but I like some tracking information. I record dates, set name and Ebay number. Also who purchased the set and their address. From these two databases I can run any number of reports showing my progress throughout the year. I can sort by customers and know who as purchased what. I can run by dates and see my monthly sales. I can see how much I have spent on shipping or Paypal expenses. The options are endless. I'm still using this system. It works for me, at least for now. I can see some changes coming in the future....Maybe a real program that combines the sales and expenses and has the capability of generating a mailing list. Or maybe something that allows me to have an online newsletter for my customers who wish to subscribe (free of course). But, that will be in the future. Right now this is perfect for me. |
