Oh, I save too much stuff. That includes stringers and little pieces of glass that I probably will never use again. I just hate to be wasteful.
So some days, I just try to use up a bunch of it. One of my favorite methods is to group a bunch of similar colors in one hand and melt them onto a transparent rod of glass. Then I pull it out into a larger stringer that I can really use. (alert: time waster, but fun).
Or I'll lay down a bunch of my less attractive ones to start off a shape of a bead and then add the base color over the top. (alert: time waster once again) This reduce, reuse, recycle thing gives me guilt trips if I don't find a way to use up this spare glass.
So now I'm trying to be mindful of making stringer. Unless it's something that I use a lot, I'm trying to make smaller ones to use up and store less. I find that I use the "emergency stringer" style of pulling it- (small amount off of the end of the mandrel that I'm using), serves me a little better some of the time.
So, this is a before photo of my table. I'm wondering...what do you do to tame the stringer and loose ends department of your glass work? I'd love to know.
See you tomorrow.
I have the same issues about wasting and it is a common topic with our kids. Stop wasting the (insert resource here) and sit down! ;)
ReplyDeleteIf I was wanting to reduce the amount of shorties and lonely stringers, I think I would throw them all in a coffee grinder to make my own frit. Then that could be stored in smaller jars or bags to free up space and then be used in fun color combinations.
great post, Marcy! I have a stringer rack that hubby built in graduated heights. When I first pull the stringer, it goes into the tallest tube. As I use it and it gets smaller, it goes into shorter and shorter tubes until it is so small I cannot use it anymore. I then save all the teeny ends in little plastic boxes with the idea that someday (you know, when I have some elusive 'free time') I tell myself I will smash into frit. I make no promises on whether or not that will actually happen though! Whenever the box gets too full, I *do* throw the bits away though. At that point they're usually less than an inch long ;) I will have to post a pic of my stringer rack on my blog! xox
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