A question about annealing....

[CrystalArt]

I cool my beadies really slowly in my 'special' fibre blanket tin.  This is basically a biscuit tin with my fibre blanket inside it (cut into about 3 layers to fit in) and a 'bead door' cut into the side...

Wow - that's really inventive!  I was trying to think up a way to combine fibre blanket with the Vermiculite (or japanese beads)  and a crock pot ... Really paranoid right now about getting all this right!

Like you, Jules, it's a question of space - I can't set up my kiln in the "conservatory" that I've now taken over to do my beads in, and my SC2 kiln is in the old utility room the other side of the house - there aren't enough plugs and power points in the conservatory to set it up there, even if there were room, so there's no chance of garaging them while I make them.

I was getting panicky about how long you can keep beads warm in the fibre blanket (or Jules's annealing tin!), before carting them off to the kiln at the end of a session?  Is time a factor?

[helbels]

Hi

What you do is leave your beads cooling in the blanket... After about an hour they will be almost totally cold.  You don't need to anneal them straight away, as they will be fine until you decide to pop them in the kiln. I batch anneal my beads once every 2 weeks or so, once I have accumulated a nice big pile of them   Most are absolutely fine this way (there's a few rare exceptions, but don't worry about those for now)

Helen x

[CrystalArt]

What you do is leave your beads cooling in the blanket... After about an hour they will be almost totally cold.  You don't need to anneal them straight away, as they will be fine until you decide to pop them in the kiln. I batch anneal my beads once every 2 weeks or so, once I have accumulated a nice big pile of them...

Helen - thank you so much for that - that's just what I would need to be doing, but wasn't sure it was possible.  So presumably I can also take the beads off the mandrels before annealing them, which means I can use a kiln without a bead door...?

Sally x

[silverlemon]

I know someone who works on the ground floor and runs downstairs to the basement with every bead as it's made to garage it. 

She's fit   

[Ian Pearson]

Many years ago when my workshop was being refurbished I relocated to a porta cabin about 5 mins walk away from workshop. No space for annealing oven so used to carry hot glass outside along road to workshop where oven was. To protect hot glass from weather I put glass in heat resistant blanket and then a large cardboard box. One day the glass was very hot and not completely covered in blanket. Half way up road box which I was carefully carrying in my hands caught fire. Rather than drop the flaming box and break the glass, I just run fast to the workshop/oven. Witness say that as they looked out their windows they could believe their eyes to see a man with seemingly his hands on fire breaking the world record for a 50 metre dash!!!!

Ian

[silverlemon]

 

[helbels]

Just to add that when batch annealing your beads, yep you can just pop them in a pile into the kiln or alternatively you can put them back on your mandrels so they look like kebabs and anneal them that way.

[helenfc]

do you put anything under them helen or just pop them on the kiln shelf? i have been using thinfire paper i used to fuse with, but its probably just a bit of a waste?

[helbels]

I just pop them on the kiln shelfy thing

[CrystalArt]

I just pop them on the kiln shelfy thing

Is that the kiln-furniture type solid (and heavy) ceramic kiln shelfy thing?  As opposed to the lightweight fibre board shelfy thing?  I have my regular kiln-washed kiln shelf propped on small kiln posts (to allow heat to circulate) - I'm assuming that's okay as the set-up?

Sally

[Trudi]

mine just go on a normal wall tile - sat on the bottom of the kiln!