Annealing beads containing silver wire

[Tonyb]

I have made some beads with silver wire, which has melted into blobs on the surface of the glass. Will these anneal OK, or should I encase the silver first?

Thanks

Tony

[mizgeorge]

Just go ahead and anneal them as usual - they'll be fine. The melting point of silver is well above the temperatures you'll be using.

[Dietmar]

Silver applications on the surface of beads are allways slightly tricky. If the silver is just sitting on top of the glass it may break off, regardless how carefull the bead was annealed before. Silver has a COE almost twice as high as the glass (189 versus 104). It shrinks faster than the glass and the glass surface around the silver is under tension. It needs just an "idea" or tiny scrach to grow a crack around the silver droplets. Due to this fact it's better to encase the silver applications. They stay where they are and there is no chavce to start a crack next to the silver.