As webdesigners, we have to make our sites both informative and beautiful to view. This takes a careful balance of design ideas, which need to be constantly upgraded and improved as users’ needs change.
Thus, the reason I came up with the following graphic depicting the considerations that go into making good webdesign decisions. I call this a “cycle” because we webdesigners never completely stop reevaluating our own decisions–we’re always coming up with ways to do it better, whatever “it” is!
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There are a LOT of beading tutorials out there for us beginners…but many of those tutorials expect you to already know quite a bit about the terminology and tools of beading, as I discovered when I began doing some research for this post. If you’re truly a beginner, this can be VERY confusing!
So, for this article, I wanted to help introduce beginning beaders to the lingo and the important tools for making beaded jewelry, as well as giving some bead storage tips and showcasing a couple of basic video tutorials. Let’s begin!
A Few Terminology Tips
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At left, this is a jump ring, used for connecting clasps to jewelry as well as other more complex beading tasks. These can be pried apart and squished back together pretty easily with the right beading tools. |
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Jump rings and necklace clasps (like the ones at left) are two types of jewelry findings. Findings are generally the metal or plastic bits that are the foundations of any beading project. (Other examples of findings are headpins for making drop earrings, crimp beads for stopping a bead string from moving around on the wire, spacers for keeping beads a certain distance apart, etc.)
See more examples of findings at the following websites: |
Beading Tools
Every beader needs the following tools for even the most basic of beading crafts:
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These kind of pliers, often called “needlenose” or “round-nose” pliers, help you hold delicate projects without squishing them, and also help you twist beading wire for various looks.
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Additionally, you’ll need these kind of pliers, called “flat-nose pliers,” for squishing jump rings back together, affixing clasps, and all sorts of things. |
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These are called “crimping pliers” (or are just referred to as a “crimping tool”); these can help you hold slippery projects (with the spot marked “F”), and they can also mash down things like crimp beads in the spot marked “E”. |
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And lastly, this little tool, called a wire cutter, is immensely helpful when you have excess beading wire at the end of a project! |
Bead Storage
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You can go and buy storage cases specifically designed for beads if you’ve got a craft supply store in your area. BUT, if you don’t, you can also use fishing tackle boxes (get the clear ones with small compartments) or weekly pill boxes. (Also, you can get creative and repurpose some little containers you have lying around the house, such as baby food jars or empty spice containers. Just make sure the lids of your containers close tightly!)
Video Tutorials: Attaching Clasps and Ending Necklaces
How to Attach a Lobster Claw
How to End a Necklace
Further Reading: Beginner Beading Tutorials
Choosing the Right Size Beading Wire
Beadaholique: YouTube Playlist of Beading Tutorials
Making-Beaded-Jewelry.com
When you play any kind of collectible game, inevitably you will end up with items you don’t use. Whether you bought a few booster packs and ended up with extras, or whether you had to get a few things you weren’t crazy about to balance out a trade, you’ll end up with a box or two of cards or figures you aren’t using and don’t plan to use.
Getting your collection built up like this is the easy part. Slimming that collection back down? Not so easy. If you’re like me and have boxes upon boxes of gaming stuff stashed away (or out in the middle of the floor where you can trip over it, lol), you’re probably wondering how in the world to get rid of some of it. Here are my little tips and bits of advice.
Step 1: Sort It ALL
Yes, yes, I know, this is the stinkiest part about pruning your collections down, but you really have to sort your collection to find out what you’ve got. Who knows, there could be a hidden gem in there waiting to be discovered! You don’t want to give your whole collection away only to find out that there was a money card or money figure that you could have sold for yourself.
Some tips for sorting your collection:
Step 2: Price It
Once you know what you’ve got, it’s time to look up all your items and see if they’re worth selling online. Most items you’ve collected might not be worth a whole lot, but you never know!
My gaming group tends to trust prices that are found on EBay, Amazon, and CardShark more than any other sites. Check for completed listings to see what your items are REALLY going for, rather than the price people are asking for.
Step 3: Package It (Carefully), Whether It’s Worth Money or Not
If you’re lucky and come across several items that you want to sell, be sure to package them carefully so that they stay in as pristine condition as possible. This will not only get you top dollar for your item, but will also make your buyers very happy!
However, if you don’t come across any money cards or figures, that doesn’t mean that you should just throw ’em all in a box without caring. You can still use them as trade fodder, or you could make a generous donation to another player at your local gaming shop who’s just getting started and needs items to play with. Make sure they’re in good condition, and someone else will have a chance to enjoy them!
The following tale is absolutely true, and serves as a warning for anyone who owns a smartphone. Don’t let this happen to you!
Symptoms: An Overheated, Data-Munching, Battery-Gobbling Phone
For months after I got my iPhone in November of last year, I thought that the phone battery life was just terrible and there was nothing I could do about it. It seemed that if I used the phone for an hour straight, I’d lose almost 50% of the battery and have to charge it again. But since most people I talked to had similar results out of their phones, I thought it was just something I’d have to live with.
After a few months, I began noticing that my phone’s Otterbox case had begun to warp, without ever being exposed to high heat (or at least that’s what I thought). The “Home” button became harder to push–I had to align the soft silicone part of the case just right to get the Home button to press down, and in other areas of the case, the silicone no longer made a tight seal with the plastic part of the case. I had been really careful with my phone not to let it spend time in the sun or in a hot car, so I had no idea what was going on.
At the same time, I also noticed that my data usage was going up, and that the phone’s back was often very warm to the touch, even when I wasn’t actively using it and it was set aside on a cool surface. What in the world?
A Simple Little Fix…
About a month ago, I was talking with one of my friends who also owns an iPhone, and he mentioned something about “closing” apps to prolong battery life. “Do you ever close your apps?” he asked. “That might be what’s heating up your phone.”
“Well, yeah,” I replied. “I hit the Home button when I’m done with an app and it disappears, so it’s closed, right?”
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “You actually have to CLOSE the app. Lemme show you.” And he double-tapped the Home button on his phone, so that his recently used apps appeared…then he held his finger on one of the icons. It began to jiggle around, with a red minus-symbol circle in its top left corner. He tapped that little symbol–and the icon vanished!
“What’d you do?” I asked.
“I closed the app,” he replied. “That’s what you have to do to really close ’em–otherwise they just keep running in the background. And too many apps running in the background can heat up your phone.”
This was an epiphany to me, as I double-tapped my own Home button and realized just exactly how many apps I had running (almost 30!). I closed each one of them, then checked the phone about an hour later–it was much cooler to the touch, and it had not lost nearly as much battery as I had been used to it losing.
The Story’s Not Quite Over
Unfortunately, though I had seemingly solved the battery life loss problem, I still had an issue with the phone getting very hot very quickly when I used it, and my data usage was still strangely high. This problem took a bit of Googling to fix, and finally I ran across this little file path to view my Usage Data:
Settings > General > About > Diagnostics and Usage > Diagnostics and Usage Data
Once I checked this data file, I discovered that an app I wasn’t even using all that much (RedLaser) was constantly trying to connect to some server and always failing. And by “constantly,” I mean that the file was literally FULL of failed requests–screenful after screenful of them. I was flabbergasted. And it was doing this even when I thought I had closed the app!
Since I wasn’t using the app anyway, I went ahead and deleted it…and for the last month, I have enjoyed regular data usage and regular temperatures while my phone is in use!
Moral of the Story: Close and Manage Your Apps!
If you’re having any of the problems I was having with my phone, try the following solutions:
For more information about keeping up with your data usage, Lifehacker’s smartphone data article gives a range of solutions for any smartphone.
“Closing Apps” Guides for Various Smartphones
How to Close iPhone Apps
How to Close Android Apps
How to Close BlackBerry Apps