Curious to know how people practise and get better

[Rascal]

Hi All, Well my bead shapes are getting better and I'm having a great time what I call playing and just seeing what happens but I now need to get better (well much better) at detail, I'm wondering how you all improved your techniques, did you just keep playing with different things depending on your mood and it all comes together, did you do dots until the cows come home and get perfection until you move onto other patterns or are there other ways you'd recommend that helped you improve and kept you coming back to the torch. Thanks.

[sarah t]

a mixture of all of them i guess
one thing till i get bored or frustrated then move on to something else and come back to it when i feel ready
experimenting and playing
watching other people ,you tube ,dvds,tutorials ,lessons ,meets with other fritters

[helbels]

Different people do different things.

Some people will practice one thing over and over and over again until they feel they have "got it" and then move on to something else.

Personally, my boredom threshold is really low, so I just keep trying different things and very gradually (hopefully!) improve all of them.

I have noticed that people who specialise in one thing seem to be able to produce really fantastic work in their chosen area much more quickly than if you keep trying random things.  I feel I am a real "jack of all trades", as you will see from looking at my Etsy store - and perhaps I would be producing more spectacular beads if I channeled my energies onto a single thing.  But I guess I wasn't made that way!!

[sparrow]

I believe firmly that 'a talent for' really means 'the patience to practise X' - I can do dots, for example, but there are others who can do them lots better...because I get bored making them. On the other hand, I can tease something sculptural forever without losing patience - ergo - you spend longer practising what you enjoy, and that's what you get better at. The other thing that can happen is that skill in one thing grows with making something else - when I started, I spent ages practising stringer, and never 'got' it. I got frustrated, and decided I wasn't a stringer girl. About 18 months later (during which I'd hardly done stringer stuff), I had another go, and had no problems writing a name on a bead at a first attempt...all the sculptural work I'd been doing had really improved my understanding of heat control. So, don't feel you *have* to master all techniques, and don't panic if some don't want to come to you...it's a long haul thing  

[helbels]

I believe firmly that 'a talent for' really means 'the patience to practise X' -

Oh dear, no hope for me then Sabine lol 

[sparrow]

Lol, but by the sounds of it, you do practise everything...I'll never properly master dots!

[Rascal]

Thanks all, really interesting to read the different things that work for people. Just as well I'm enjoying the practising part 

[MangoBeads]

For me I have just enjoyed making what I enjoy making and as my bead making has progressed I spend longer doing the things I really enjoy and then skills in that area have improved too.

I think as you accumulate hours under your belly you naturally spend more time on the things you enjoy and consequently your skills in those areas will improve and your style will start to develop too .

I have never persevered with anything I don't enjoy doing .... Some things within lampworking are just not for me and I  don't even go there but dots I love dots and detail so will always and have always spent most of my time there .....

[Krysia@No98]

You could try setting yourself silly projects.

I decided that I would make a few beads of every colour and make of glass that I have.  I have now got labels attached so when I look at them I know what they are.  The starting idea of this was that I would have beads to show people when they asked me what colours I have (I have got a few commissions from this and it has been very useful when I am trying to plan out particular gifts)  This project taught me a lot about what the glass I have can do.  The rech mystics for example, boring transparent rod, fabulous after it's been melted.  I can now make fairly regular spacers with out needing to make too many extras for just in case.

Next project I am thinking about is beads with different coloured cores and various transparents over the top.  I hear that periwinkle under Rubino makes a great deep pink.  This will also help me with my encasing (want to learn to do ends better) and will teach me more about colour changes.

When I have one of these mad projects on (and most people do think I'm off my rocker, not just in general but as well for doing these projects), it's not the only think I do, but when I am stilling at the torch and thinking what on earth do I do now coz there's just too much glass and too many possibilities I find these projects really focus me.

[Redhotsal]

I agree with the above comments. I'm not a bead making "natural" at all. Not at all. I'm "average" when it comes to ability but I have had an awful lot of practise so I am now pretty good with lots of techniques (though - I'll never be great at ultra fine stringer!). I teach people and it never fails to amaze me that there are some people who can do any technique they are shown within an hour, sometimes even on their very first lesson ever, while the rest of us mere mortals have to put in the practise.

Actually I don't mind putting in the practise. That's sort of the fun of it, for me. Yes, there are some techniques that regardless of practise I'll always be rubbish at - but luckily, I'm not particularly interested in those beads anyway, so I'm not missing out on anything. Apart from sculptural....where, like Sabine I'll happily spend hours worrying a piece of glass with (in my case) not much to show for it at the end.

I think you can over do the practise - and you can definitely try too hard. If you are really determined to crack a particular technique I often find that it all comes together when I actually STOP trying to make it happen. It's great when it suddenly "clicks". I tell people that bead making is like driving - there's lots to think about and do all at the same time. As you get better at driving you actually stop over analysing things after a while - i.e. you stop thinking about it and start doing it automatically. That's why people's first beads are often great but their second ones are rubbish ('cos they've started to think about what they're doing). If it's not working for you - do the Jedi Knight thing and trust your instincts and Use the Force! 

[BeeBeads]

If it's not working for you - do the Jedi Knight thing and trust your instincts and Use the Force! 

May the flame be with you   

[Helen G]

From my experience, I have had several processes that I was struggling with in the early days and then after having watched someone else do it in a slightly different way to how I'd been trying, I have had a eureka moment and not looked back 

If you can get to a meet up with other lampies or better still take a course with someone who can do what you want to do, it may (not guaranteed) save you a good few hours of ppp 

[flame n fuse]

Courses and youtube are very helpful, and I have finally got the hang of Bullseye lustres and (mostly) got the hang of Kalypso, encasing is getting better, but the eureka moment for stringer completely eludes me - even after watching the Corina DVD several times. Does anyone have suggestions for glass which is 'easy' for stringers? (SIS is the best I've found, but I don't want that everywhere).
I like the idea of 'silly projects', Krysia.

[Rascal]

Brilliant thanks for all the tips and ideas 

[ScarletLeonard]

My original Ahhhh moment came after going to a get together. After just one day I came home with the ability to see where I was going.
Coincidently that day was when I first saw sculptural beads and yes I went home and made a few of them and with that came the heat control to make 'normal' beads.

It's taken another 2 years but I have realised I am more of a sculptural kinda gal, I can sit down and fight with normal beads dots and stringer end up wonky, yet if I make a goddess I can easily add the stringer or dots so there is something to be said for doing what you enjoy rather than trying to force a skill that doesn't interest you to develop.