Hi,

As I was sanding several handpainted pendants, this thought popped into my head:

What do you find to be the most boring/tedious part of your craft and what do you do to get past the boring stuff?

For me, it's the sanding, cuz...well...I hate sanding. But, I know the end result will be worth it so it keeps me going. Also, listening to great music helps the time pass as does thinking about how the end result will look. There are other times my thoughts wander off to who knows where which results in a topic like this!

[:D]

Dawn

I hate sanding too. I also am bored stiff stringing the necklaces I design. I'm also not fond of putting on the clasps. Oh, and I do not like soldering jump rings closed. I really LOVE creating polymer pieces and designing jewelry but once it's designed I am not in love with the mechanics of putting it together - but I gots to!

Ahhh - sanding! I think that's the most tedious also. I try to do it in small batches so I know I'll be done soon. Whatever I can get done in 20-30 minutes is about my limit, but 15 is better! Sometimes it's surprising that it doesn't really take as long as it feels like it takes.

I also hate the tedium of cleaning up the loose ends after I've completed a piece - like putting the odd beads back in their homes and "filing" all the parts that I tried but didn't like with the piece. Haven't figured a way around that yet, other than to clean up after each piece rather than jumping into the next one and getting out even more stuff.

Sanding...yeah, hate that too...and cleaning up after cutting jumprings. I have a Koil Kutter which makes it quick, but then there's metal dust to clean off the blade, and lubricant to clean off the rings, then they need dried, etc.

Sparklebee, that's funny that you like designing, but don't like putting everything together....maybe you need an employee! I also hate stringing, it makes me very grouchy which is why I don't do it!

Sanding is horrible. I also don't like cleaning up after I complete a project. I don't mind stringing, but having to clean up all the little scraps of wire drives me nuts!

Tedious is having to put back all of the beads that you pulled out trying to decide what looks good together for a particular project.

Adrienne

When I do coiling I found I have to have a movie going. Not a new movie I've never seen, but an old favorite that I know well because I can keep my eyes on what I'm doing and stop for the good stuff.

I hate cleaning up but you've got to or people complain about beads over the dinner table at meal times. (It's a shared area and apparently my craft space is big enough to keep my stuff out of everyone elses way but what do they know about needing more room.) I find a quick vacuum for smaller seed beads dropped on the floor, you'll never find them again anyway, for the few seed beads scattered on the table, I toss into a clear sherry glass, they look pretty and colourful posed on my windowsill to catch the light. Personally I've recently ventured into more metal than beads and started taking a jewellery techniques course at the local polytech. And i hate polishing!!!! Tripoli and rouge get all over your clothes and hair and you can't get the black and brown stains off your nails or ever feel clean again afterwards! Today the vents stopped working properly and all the stray fluff from the cloth polishing wheels when up into my face and clothes and I got great mouthfuls of dust and polish every time I tried to breathe. I hate that part most!!!!

Cutting metal. It hurts my hands and I glaze over with boredom and although I haven't cut myself yet I'm sure I will one day.

I don't mind sanding and polishing metal though rouge, etc, is horrible stuff. Sanding polymer was so tedious I bought an extra barrel for my tumbler and now most of it just goes in there [:D]

I can't stand adding new thread or new wire. Wire picots are pretty darn tedious too. Also, preopening/closing rings for maille speedweaving can be pretty dull.

I hate tieing off when I've run out of stringing material. I don't enjoy crimping. My favorite part of beading is buying beads... unfortunately. I'm not an artist... just a collector of pretty things.

QUOTE: Originally posted by kctoung I hate cleaning up but you've got to or people complain about beads over the dinner table at meal times. (It's a shared area and apparently my craft space is big enough to keep my stuff out of everyone elses way but what do they know about needing more room.) I find a quick vacuum for smaller seed beads dropped on the floor, you'll never find them again anyway, for the few seed beads scattered on the table, I toss into a clear sherry glass, they look pretty and colourful posed on my windowsill to catch the light. Personally I've recently ventured into more metal than beads and started taking a jewellery techniques course at the local polytech. And i hate polishing!!!! Tripoli and rouge get all over your clothes and hair and you can't get the black and brown stains off your nails or ever feel clean again afterwards! Today the vents stopped working properly and all the stray fluff from the cloth polishing wheels when up into my face and clothes and I got great mouthfuls of dust and polish every time I tried to breathe. I hate that part most!!!!

From a lady who, fresh out of smithing school, used to work 8 hours a day behind a polishing machine in a jeweler workshop , how about a few tips to make it less painful? [:D]



Survival Guide for Polishing

1.Wear latex gloves when you polish...the kind they use in hospitals. Dust your hands with baby powder and slip them on. They should fit very snug, and you don't have to worry about them getting caught in the machine. Expect the first 2 - 3 times you wear the gloves to feel a bit awkward if you work behind a wheel-type polishing machine. You'll get used to them quickly, and your hands and fingernails will thank you infinitely.

2.Wear a smock, like a lab coat when you polish. Voilà, no more rouge and all those nasty polishing paste powders covering your clothes from head to toe.

3. Wear a mask which covers mouth and nose, one of those lightweight surgical type masks will work fine

4. Accumulate a few pieces for polishing, don't polish one as soon as you finish it, wait until you have 5 or 6 ready to polish, then do a session. This to avoid the pain in the rear of putting on gloves, smock and mask to polish a trinket that'll take you all of two minutes. Also,surgical gloves are disposable, meaning you don't want to use boxes and boxes of them because you polish one piece at a time. Polish them all at once, then everything is ready for the wash, dry and buff.

Hope that makes your polishing a less gnarly experience. I HATED that job, but I'll be darned if I'm not the shiznit now when it comes to polishing [:D]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kctoung I hate cleaning up but you've got to or people complain about beads over the dinner table at meal times. (It's a shared area and apparently my craft space is big enough to keep my stuff out of everyone elses way but what do they know about needing more room.) I find a quick vacuum for smaller seed beads dropped on the floor, you'll never find them again anyway, for the few seed beads scattered on the table, I toss into a clear sherry glass, they look pretty and colourful posed on my windowsill to catch the light. Personally I've recently ventured into more metal than beads and started taking a jewellery techniques course at the local polytech. And i hate polishing!!!! Tripoli and rouge get all over your clothes and hair and you can't get the black and brown stains off your nails or ever feel clean again afterwards! Today the vents stopped working properly and all the stray fluff from the cloth polishing wheels when up into my face and clothes and I got great mouthfuls of dust and polish every time I tried to breathe. I hate that part most!!!!

I agree with what Original SIn said .....
I have to add that, I can't believe a school would let you do this without at least a mask! .. jeez .. Triploi/Rouge is TOXIC stuff!

I think the WORST is not having a proper place to bead or STORE your beads...my living room is now a bead room....AAARRRRGGGHHH...I've tried to organize with bead organizers, but, they--too--are in every corner of the living room....If my son (who moved out more than a year ago) would find it in his heart to clean out "his" room, perhaps, the story will change (soon, I hope!!!!).

[red]elly[/red[

Assembling kits: measuring seed beads to put in baggies and winding bobbins of thread. Bor-ring! I watch TV while I do it, and that helps. Also, winding bobbins is easy to do on road trips. Sometime though, the simplicity of it is nice after a long complicated day at work. Also, making kits gives me something pseudo-creative to do when I want to make something but am not feeling very creative.

The other boring thing for me is enlarging holes in gemstones so that I can weave with them. Bzzzz goes the electric bead reammer.... Ugh. Any tips on that one?

I like making jewelry, and filing my beads away just gives me an excuse to look through my beads.

[:D] gwen