Boring

Q: This newsgroup has certainly gotten a lot less interesting...

A: Got any idea on how to liven things up? I suspect that most people are really busy with the holiday season coming up. For those that go to craft fairs to sell their ware, they are probably busy making stuff for sale. So what kind of projects are you working on lately? And heading out to the international bead conference in DC, after which I expect things will liven up big time as everybody tries to find out what was learned in the hundred or so classes they didn't take, and tries out what was learned in the 5-10 they did. It ought to be wild and wooley and excellent. It's Friday night, so the conference has already started, but those who took notes, please share with those of us who were unable to attend. If you remind me, I'll do the same when I go to Embellishment next March in Houston. What type of beads do you want to drill? Plastic, polymer, clay, wood, glass, or semi-precious? Hard plastics and wood are fairly easy. I've done those with a hand drill before. Polymer clay needs to be kept cool. Check some of the books on drilling glass and semi-precious beads. To drill glass, and semi-precious stones, you will need a diamond drill bit. Of course, you will need to keep them cool. Best way is to use a small drill press or you can rig up a Dremel tool and build a small "dam" of modelling clay to hold the bead and coolant (water is ok for most apps). Drill down into the bead only small increments at a time, retract, drill, retract, etc. Idea is to remove a small amount of material at a time and make sure that the hole has coolant each time you drill again.

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