Help, all my beads are breaking!!

[beadit]

I have still only the basic equipment and have been quite alright with cooling my beads in my fiber blanket with very little breakage, now it's sort of disintegrating and I thought I give the old vermiculite and slow cooker a go, was OK yesterday but today a free afternoon of bead making and every single bead cracked. They are all different encased, lentils even small spacer I'm at a loss??? Never had this problem even now that I'm more adventurous making them bigger and so forth. Very sad, crying into my glass of wine as I'm typing. Any ideas? Yes, I need a kiln but nowhere to put it! 

[Pam]

Three things come to mind. Using a press increases stress within the bead, encasing also increases stress so I would expect problems with these. We're you making tiny spacers in opaque or transparent? We're you making multiple spacers on one mandrel?
We're you admiring them too long or peeking at them once they had gone into the vermiculite? Door open draft maybe......just a few ideas.
Don't cry  it spoils the taste of the wine
I'm sure it will be better next session.its all about practice.

[helbels]

I have a bead cube and it goes on top of the tumble drier when it's on.... I live in a weeny flat, but where there's a will, there's a way!

[Izzybeads]

Encased beads should really go into the kiln straight away.  Once the inner bead is cool enough for the encasing, you already have heat loss.  Are your beads cracking in half? If they are its a heat issue  sorry   

[Nicknack]

If they've cracked in half they will make nice earrings, or rings! Waste not, want not!!!!!!!!!!

[dangerousbead]

Are you heating the vermiculite in a slow cooker? Before I got a kiln I found the ceramic blanket was better than the vermiculite on the whole but it doesn't last long. Are you flame annealing before putting in the verm?

[Shirl]

I feel for you, I remember when it happened to me, but no crying!!!!!!

[Sarah A]

Poor you. I know how it feels. Are you on a hothead?  Any encased beads I made on mine always cracked, strangely they seem to survive better now I'm on duel fuel even though they are still cooled in bubbles.

[GaysieMay]

If you pm me your address I'll post you my old fibre blanket - I'm sure its still in the garage somewhere.  I'm a big fan of the bead cube as well, I hardly ever get cracked beads now!   

[Soozintheshed]

I have never had an encased bead survive in Vermic, never.  Always get asked to demo them at a college I teach at, always the same result, two perfect halves 

[ScarletLeonard]

I have some vermiculite cooled encased beads in a box they never got annealed either (play beads, didn't see the point in batching them) but they are still intact.

Turn the slow cooker on to high and make sure it has had time to heat up before you put the first bead in.
When you have finished the bead give it a good waft high up in the flame, just like you were trying to remove tool marks.
There should be no glow left on the bead, shove it in the vermiculite and leave it, no peaking.

When I finished my session I would tidy up then turn the slow cooker onto low, leave it overnight then in the morning turn the cooker off and retrieve my beads. I only ever used the slow cooker in the winter too.

Also vermiculite degrades over time too, so it will get less effective. I did end up buying myself a pack of bubbles and that was certainly better.

[Kalorlo]

You can wrap your fibre blanket in aluminium foil to help hold it together if it isn't too far gone (shiny side in helps reflect the heat back in). Make a sort of envelope with one open side where you put the beads in.

[beadit]

Thank you all, for your replies. yeah i do flame anneal to the point of risking to die of boredom, only really spoils the effect of any reduction glass. I'll have another go and keep the cooker on high. Just one more thing where do I get a bead cube ??!!!!!,used maybe!!

[Allicat]

Newbie to the forum here; hope I can help.

You may want to try the mini Annealer by Devardi. I picked one up a few weeks ago, and while the first one was defective (Eeeek!), they replaced it immediately and the current one works well.  Devardi actually makes them from some kind of hair tool heater thingie. They're tiny; they fit maybe 6-8 beads at a shot depending on the size, but a helluva lot cheaper than a full annealer and fit into much smaller spaces (of course you still need room for air circulation, etc). Since the only place i can torch is in my tiny kitchen, it suited me perfectly. Check their website (Devardiglass.com) and see if it would suit your needs as well. Cause broken beads are the pits!

Alli

*edit*  oh, and they do ship international!

[beadit]

Thanks for that , I'll definitely have a look at the mini annealer!!