Hi All
Having accumulated a largeish stock of interesting looking split beads I had a go at fusing/slumping them into Cabs.
About 50% still have a slight groove in the back where the bead hole was - some the line extends all the way across and others the outer ends have disappeared but there is still a groove in the centre.
i tried re fusing them but nothing much happened, guess they have reached the magic thickness of 6mm.
has anyone else had this and tried backing them with anything to cover the groove? I looked at pendant mounts but the sizes I have are vary varied and range from round to quite elongated ovals.
you could try grinding the base flat by rubbing the half bead on a flat glass sheet (with abrasive)
A very simple solution, depending on what you want to do with the cabs, is to glue something like ultrasuede on the back.
http://www.bearbasics.co.uk/ultrasuede/c16
Try rubbing them down on a 3M diapad, easiest to find on the bay. I have red and black (black coarser than red) there is also a green which is even coarser but may be too coarse. Protect your finger ends.
Did you make sure you cleaned absolutely all the bead release out before you slumped?
I've been recently using my Dremel to smooth out the backs of cabs like these. The rough back them makes them adhere better to ring pads etc. bit of a faff but worth it I think.
Thanks for all the ideas ladies.
The latest batch just have a very faint line on the back insted of a definite grrove - i've been gradually tweaking the settings on my kiln. The same programme also flattens bottles ( only little ones - its an SC2 so not much room) beautifully:)
I was going to suggest a little tweak - maybe extend the hold time slightly, or raise the temp by a couple of degrees.