Organizing and inventory

[S.TImmerman]

Good evening

I have over 600 square feet of fusible glass in my studio . I am no expert however I know enough to donate my time and glass to teachers in my area to make items and spread the wonderful world of glass to the next generation. I'm learning as I go, pulling rods, raking glass, pattern bars ect.


My problem

We have 4 full crates (400sqft )of glass plus all the glass I had before.
I would like to start keeping very good records when I get these mystery crates unpacked so I know what i have on hand.

I beg to know what programs you're using to inventory your glass, Coe, size, numbers..I'm willing to pay for this service.

Do you store all blues with blue? translucent, with streaky translucent , ect

Does spectrum or bullseye have speadsheets with numbers and colors of their glass online? I looked but could not find any.

I'm
Greatful!!!
Shereen

[The Hobbyist]

I use only BE so I store my sheet glass in numerical order using their catalog numbers.

Jim

[Morganica]

Depends on how you work, really. My studio is currently (a real mess and embarrassing) organized around my own work habits. Stuff I need quickly, like frit jars, is closest to my worktable. The less often I need it, the farther away it's stored. I tend to organize by color AND transparency when I have the space--transparent blues in one bin,opal blues in the next, etc. If I don't have enough shelf/binspace to support that, I store by clear/neutral/black/hot/warm/cool colors.

I inventory with Excel, have a separate tab for each glass manufacturer. The spreadsheet looks a heckuva lot like the one in the back of Bullseye's catalog--I run colors/numbers down the first column, then have columns for every standard size and form of glass they sell. When I'm inventorying (rarely, to be honest), I just count the number of pieces in one type/color, stick it in the cell.

I don't know if Bullseye makes its catalog listing available in spreadsheet form. Would be useful if it did--I just typed mine in by hand.

[S.TImmerman]

I've written both companies to see if they might have a spread sheet. I'll chime in if they do and share it. We made strong bins and then stacked crates on top. A lot of braces for the wt of the glass. I spent all day removing the glass and organizing the way they do on their individual website. It's a royal headache keeping the coes separate ..especially for scrap.! Plus the fact I still have a lot of SG sheets!
Thanks!
Sheree

[Cate G]

I built a case system like most of the glass retailers use; slide in bins for 24x24" pieces, sorted into colors. I use mostly Sys 96 so keeping coe's seperate is easy. I bought 4 rolling metal bin things in Walmart. They each have 4 bins that a plastic shoe storage box fit into. So, my bigger scrap fits into the bins easily, by color. It's just the clear scrap I have a problem storing; I have so much of it.
I also did an Excel spreadsheet myself. It works great, if I remember to update it .
Cate

[Pat K.]

I just read a post the other day from Steve Immerman of Clearwater Glass about an inventory program he found on line. It's under the Business link; his description is very thorough and worth taking a look at. I think the software was called Artist Archive and was very reasonable cost-wise. It helps you keep track of your made pieces, so maybe it could be adapted to help with your glass inventory.

I wish I had your problem of too much glass to keep track of

Good luck - Patty

[lorimendenhall]

Shereen, San Diego has a very active glass community. are you in touch with the Art Glass Guild in the Spanish Village Art Center? www.artglassguild.com.

[ironman55]

Where do you get your glass?
Thanks, Joe

[Cate G]

I don't know where you live, so don't know if there are any retail or wholesale stores near you. I use mostly system 96, and get it from Rainbow Artglass in New Jersey. I also shop at Bendhiem in New Jersey. Bullseye has opened a store and resource center in one of the New York boro's. I have never had glass shipped, because of the cost. There is also Warner Artglass in Pennsylvania. I am able to drive to any of these stores.
Cate

[Don Burt]

I try to make sure every sheet of glass has a number on it. Preferably the manufacturer's. I try to make sure every scrap of glass worth knowing about has a number. That's things about 4x4" or larger. I have sheets of glass that I've forgotten their origin or their manufacturers number, but they have scrawled on them in grease pencil or sharpie a made up number that correlates to a sheet of the same stuff, if it exists, and a sample in my sample box which I try to make sure exists. Every time I'm interested in knowing, I go through my racks with a pencil and paper and note the number of sheets of each numbered glass. That's my inventory. I've been interested enough to take inventory maybe three times in the years I've been doing glass. But what I can do with this is use my sample sets to color pick, and have pretty good confidence by glancing at the inventory whether I have enough glass to do the piece. It makes going through the scrap rack a lot quicker than holding the scrap to the light and comparing it too. I don't use a spreadsheet, and that says something because I use spreadsheets for lots of things and do database work for a living. There's just not that much I want to know about my glass except what number it is and how much of it I have right now. If I wanted to know historical usage it would get complicated quickly. Oh, I do record what I spend on glass in a spreadsheet, but not how many square feet I bought.

[Valerie Adams]

Ha! I've got 10 full crates (along with a stack of overflow sheets) and do my recordkeeping the same way Don does. My full sheets are organized by color, with opals and transparents separated. I have a full case of Tekta. I've got a binder with a sheet for each crate, and everything in each crate written in pencil so I can easily edit. I try to remember to edit once the full sheet moves into the half-sheet or smaller sheet area. I don't inventory anything smaller than half-sheets since they're easily to glance at and see what I have. Same with frit, since jars are in drawers sorted by texture and opacity.

I went to Bullseye's Winter Sale on Wednesday and was able to quickly scan my list at home before going. Identified the six sheets I needed and managed to buy only 22 sheets once there.