I guess quite a few folks keep their glass in the shedio's and other outside workspaces and I wonder about the effect of this cold weather on the glass. I am procrastinating on getting my workspace set up because it is so so cold out there and cannot face sitting in a cold outbuilding in subzero temps, no matter how much I want to get on with my beading; then it occured to me about the glass and whether if I did get my finger out and get all set up whether my glass would be so cold it would be very difficult to work/very shocky becuase of the temps??? Do folks keep their glass in unheated workspaces? Does it suffer? Do people do anything to keep it warm!? Thanks folks. :)
Hi Lotti, I work in a very cold shedio - but I put on the kiln and a little heater for a bit before switching on the oxycon (got to pamper that) and then introduce the glass very slowly at the tip of the flame. I get some shocking but not too bad :)
I did 2 hrs yesterday and when I switched my kiln on it read -8, hence why I only managed 2 hrs! I found a couple of my beads cracked when I got them out of the kiln today as I thnk they must have cooled down too much when I was 'oooh-ing and ahh-ing' over them before I put them on the kiln :(
Vix
Just make sure you warm the rod before really getting the heat into it. Either by resting it just inside the bead door of the kiln, putting it into a grill plate or just dipping it in and out of the flame to warm it a little.
I only dip mine in the flame and haven't had any shocky glass yet.
I have a fan heater blowing in my legs and put the rods in front of that to get a little warmth into them.
Even in my kitchen, my rods tend to shock more than usual in the winter. I just try to work them a little slower to begin with.
I had a really shocky time week before last as my rods got so cold (and thats indoors LOL) I do try to remember to pop the rods on top of the kiln before I start , but as normal with sods law I change my mind and want a different colour and forget to warm it ::)
I batch anneal and only use my kiln about twice a month, so I put my rods in a glass jar and pop it in my slow cooker beside my annealing bubbles. I then stand the rods in the glass jar and they are nice and warm when I want to use them.