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Wednesday 20 April 2016

Q is for Quality Control


Quality control can be quite subjective, you have the obvious issues... like the bead is actually in two pieces!

Broken Bead

This one was made at the end of a session - I was renting a bench so I had a set time limit for making and there wasn't enough time to flame anneal this properly at the end of the session... this was the result.

There are other things wrong with this bead aside from it being broken, but I did like the colours I'd used.

Below are some obvious rejects that aren't broken in two but suffer with quality control issues.

A range of quality control issues!

Left to right - bad shape, dot pattern not quite right, horrible smeared pattern (looks like a dirty protest), bad shape/not quite sure what happened or what I was going for with the last one!

The next set contains some classics; horrible jagged edges (not a nice pucker), uneven width and in the foreground a slanted end (not deliberate).

Jagged edges and uneven beads

These were all quite early examples, so the next one is a very recent one for balance and a problem I have with my encasing sometimes.

Sometimes it can be a clear bald spot, where the clear encasing has pushed the patterned glass inwards... in the pic below, the bead off the bracelet has a bald spot!

Bald spot on the bead off the bracelet
(the ones on the bracelet are fine,
I just didn't have a pic of the other bead on it's own)

But sometimes a flaw can work in your favour, they're not all bad.  Here is a bead that is uneven, there is more glass on one side than the other, it's not quite round and the ends are not particularly puckered; it's a definite reject bead - but it works beautifully on a bangle - the less glass on one side means it sits just perfect on your wrist!

Uneven glass distribution around the core can
make for a "great" bangle bead

Who knew wonky beads had such a great use!

Any stories of quality control - the good, the bad or the ugly?

6 comments:

  1. I admire your ability to make such beautiful little objects, and that last one is lovely, and an inventive use.

    As a writer, the quality control for me is all in the editing. I am an editor as well, and I have all sorts of quality control issues with my own writing and editing other people's. In my own writing, I have a tendency to run-on sentences - I did manage a whole paragraph in one sentence - Tash is very good at cutting up my overly long thoughts :). And I do the same for Tash, only her usual faux pas's are missing commas around subordinate clauses and I sometimes have to tell her 'show don't tell' because she's glossed over an important bit for pacing (with me it's the opposite, sometimes she has to tell me to take a bit out because it just weighs the text down).
    Sophie
    Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles | Wittegen Press | FB3X

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    Replies
    1. Runaway sentences are a thing of mine... what do you mean you want to pause for breath?

      It must be lovely to be able to help each other out like that :)

      Mars xx

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  2. All of mine would look like the rejects if I ever tried this, I am sure :) Wow, so much skill.
    *points up* What she said! LOL
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol saved you writing yours out ;) as I said above it must be nice to be able to help each other out! :)

      I still have a lot of rejects but they tend to be for more subtle things than some of my earlier horrors...

      Mars xx

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  3. Fascinating glimpse into your bead-making world!

    ReplyDelete

I love saying hi to people who've read my blog, or are just passing through via the A to Z, or anyone not a spam bot!

P.s. If you use an iPad/iPhone and are having trouble leaving a comment on Blogger, you might have better luck using a browser that's not the default iPad one... Then from the "Comment as" drop down menu choose Name/Url (you can leave URL field blank or add your web address) or Anonymous and (hopefully) away you go! Mars xx