With the purse on the loom (Mirrix), I'm working with 37 colours. The setup looks like below. It takes about 3-4 minutes to get all the colours laid out in order (lowest to highest DB number), and put away when I'm finished. I have been using this setup for a while, and it works for me. 5 colours in each row numbered from 1 to 9 then A and up. I've used it enough to memorise which letter or number is at the start of each row. I don't need to count very often I'm so used to it.
When I first worked with two mats worth of colours, I stuck a piece of paper to the wall in front. It just had the start number/letter for each row, serving as a reminder. The getting out/putting away can be tiresome, so I need to think of a way to store them so they're ready to be used without too much faffing around! I'll have to think about that a bit more.
I have done two things with this. The first, and new, is to loom from the bottom up. I didn't reverse the rows in the word chart so I'm reading from the bottom up! I haven't confused any rows yet so that's good. But I think I prefer to work top down. I guess that's what I'm used to. The second is I worked those first rows with a single needle (usual method of looming). I normally use the two-needle method regardless of whether I'm working on a bracelet or wider piece. The needles travel in opposite directions.
There is another where the needless travel in the same direction. That is very useful for areas of solid colour. You can load beads onto one half of the weft, and use the other end to pass through to secure them. The advantage is being able to use a longer length of thread without fear of it becoming tangled. I also seem to add thread less often. it's better seen so I'll try and show it in my next YouTube video.
On that note, here is the progress. That's a hand appearing on the left! The excitement starts now! There's one colour I need more of, so don't know how much I'll be able to loom tomorrow. I'm getting more on Wednesday so can continue soon.
Till next time, happy beading :)
3 comments:
Good morning
I wanted to pass along how I handle many bead colors and having to stow them away when done working for the day. I am currently working on a large bead tapestry with 90+ colors. I only get to work on it during my lunch hour, so I needed something that could quickly and easily be put up after I was done working.
I found, use, and love, this product:
http://www.sova-enterprises.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_13;products_id=2
Can also be found here:
http://www.shipwreckbeads.com/catalog/Beading-Tools-and-Accessories/Storage-Products/Storage-Trays//orderBy/sku/itemsPerPage/20/page/1/item/MS631
Since I have 90+ colors, I had to buy two of them, but they neatly hold (without any spilling once the lids are on if you accidently tip them over, not that I would know that.....[grin]) and stack to a very small size that fits on the corner of my table. When I am ready to work next time, I just pop the lids off and go to it.
To keep track of the colors, I bought those tiny dots stickers and wrote the bead numbers in Sharpie then stuck them on the inside edge of each little bowl. The bowls themselves are rather shallow, so I tend to have to refill them every few days, but that hasn't been a hassle. My needle is able to easily scoop up a bead without having them skip all over the place due to that shallowness, so I find it nice.
All in all, I have found it very handy and thought I would pass it along in case it helps.
Thank you for the helpChrissy. One question, how easy is it to pick the beads up from these trays?
I use a 5 inch Pony needle and haven't had any issues at all with picking beads up.
I did have a little difficulty when using a shorter needle though. My fingers would dip into the bowl along with the needle causing everything to go wild. But the longer needle fixed that.
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