There are a few combinations I use that seem to be a bit tricky, and it's 50/50 to weather the beads come out of the kiln in one piece.
How do people feel about selling the beads like this that do survive the annealing process?
It's all 104 glass...
On the one hand I'm thinking that becuase it should be compatible then if it hasn't cracked by a week after coming out of the kiln then it's not going to... but on the other hand I feel a bit nervous about it as I do know it could be a risk :-\
The main coulours I'm thinking of are 006 encased Gellys Sty rolled in 104 frit, Poision Apple encased with Appletini and 006 clear encased with Cranberry Pink
I have recently had an issue with Cranberry glass used as an encasing layer and until I had done a lot investigating was not happy about selling any beads made with it, even those that seemed fine as beads can sometimes crack months after being annealed if there is a problem. With mine it turned out to be the particular batch of glass and not my bead making thank goodness :)
Oh yes, I was thinking of getting 2 polarising lenses to look at how the glass has been annealed - are these what I'm after?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CW-72mm-CPL-Circular-Polarizing-Filter-DSLR-lens-/260848923152?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraLensesFilters_JN&hash=item3cbbceb210
It doesn't help with identifying stress problems in the opaque combinations I described but would be a good investment I think - providing it's the right thing!
Thanks Helen, i'll have a go with Rubino and maybe silghtly change the other recepies I'm using too.
V frustrating to find something that works, only to discover that it actually doesn't! ::)
My bad batch of Cranberry was one from years ago and the recent one I got is fine ;) Gelly's Sty (I think) is a bit fussy about being encased, I've not really used it though.
One suggestion might be to use CIM clear for encasing CIM glass. Most will survive with 006 but there are a few that are temperamental.
Kazx
Helen, just got home, one of my two surviving beads from Fridays session has cracked :o point taken!
Thanks Kaz, I have a bit of CIM clear so will give it a go, to be honest I think a lot more of my beads have been breaking recently than i'd like to admit to - i'll try those polarising filters on a plain transparent bead to see if my kiln is to blame.
I made some sets of 11mm beads and put them into annealing bubbles, pretty much everything broke with the following:
Gellys sty rolled in frit and encased in clear
Poison apple encased with appletini
eff Orange encased with pink lady
006 rolled in pixie dust & encased with cranberry
Then when I made the same beads with the kiln on and garaged them about 40% (and falling) survived
But I made loads of other beads of the same design using different colours and not a single one broke on either count...
??? ??? ???
So maybe it isn't the kiln and I have just had a bad run with colour choices - have never had a problem with beads cracking in the past - it's a sad sad story!!
A while ago I made a loads of sets using 104 glass and layers and layers of 90 frit - before finding out that it maybe wasn't such a good idea. And do you know what.... not a single bead from those 8 sets ever broke!! ::)