tuxedo ??

[sarah t]

has any one else had a problem with tuxedo??...i made some stunners with it the other day and all have cracked ?.......i know i am new ish to this but i dont think its something i am doing .......i expect the odd one to go tits up these days but not 5 !!..just seamed a bit of a coincedence that the base in all of them was tuxedo ?......

[Trudi]

were they encased? Or what else was on them?

[sarah t]

not encased ....melted blobs of copper green , magic , aeura...and a few other colours ... and silver wire wrapped





used same technique and colours on other beads and all fine ? ( sept newbi show and tell ...yesterdays haul )

[Pat from Canvey]

Cracks along the mandrel line are usually thermal cracks. The beads have cooled too quickly.

[Trudi]

It does seem strange. - I was going to say the same as Pat.

Are they pressed? Perhaps after the pressing they need a lot of heat to stabilize them. When you use a press it does draw a lot of the heat out of the glass.  I tend to press a few times.

It could be that Tuxedo needs more heat than the others. As an experiment - try 1 more bead similar - give it lots of heat after the press and see what happens!

[sarah t]

i would have said that to pat if i had not had so many work in the same session !.....must have been a bad tuxedo bead day ! ..but thinking about it these ae not the first tuxedo lentels that have done it..... but i had put those down to my inexperience ...... maybe they nead extra  extra heat after pressing ...will experiment further trudi 

[Shirley]

Be careful that the silver wire stays on the surface and doesn't sink too far into the bead. I once made a great pressed focal and it crakced in too. When I looked you could see a glob of silver that had sunk in right on the line of the break.

[sea-thistle]

I agree with Shirley it's a reaction between the metal and the glass. Shame as they are beautiful beads!