An eclectic blog about beads, beading and beyond



Monday, June 6, 2011

Procrastination and handy beady facts: they may not change the world but they can save time


I have a wonderful business card from a local beading business that has simple pictorial information about bead sizes and wire gauges on the back. I find myself checking it often when I need to order wire findings or specific sized beads. Looking at it again today got me thinking about what information it’s handy to have just at your fingertips rather than several searches through a book or Google away. For instance, at the weekend I taught a beginner’s herringbone rope class and to prepare the kits I needed to know how many grams of size 8/0 seed beads were needed to make a certain length of herringbone rope.

To find out was easy but a little time consuming – I beaded an 8cm piece of rope and weighed it. I am sure I have a book somewhere that might tell me but searching through my ever growing beading book library I know I would have been totally distracted by other things. So, I now know that 3 grams of size 8/0 seed beads make approximately 8 cm of a herringbone rope with four beads as its base. One fact does not a book make but I have decided to start a ‘handy beady facts’ file where I can safely store my new handy beady fact till I need it next. Alongside this handy beady fact are going some others that I’ve found on scraps of paper in a recent tidy in bead studio. They are the bits of paper I keep meaning to put away but never seem to do it and never seem to know where.

Talking of what I keep meaning to do … Years ago I had the idea of developing my own Bead Abacus – full of all the facts and figures that beaders need to calculate everything that needs calculating as a beader. Maybe now’s the time to dust off the idea, tackle the procrastination actually do it!!!! I’ll try out the “15 minute rule” to avoid procrastination - just set the clock and spend 15 minutes on it right now… instead of blogging!!!

Be back soon and love to hear what your handy bead facts are… or how you stop procrastination when it sets in…. my 15 minutes starts now.

No comments:

Dax Designs - now on Byhand.me Artisan Co-op