Morning After The Night Before...

[nete]

Is it just me or does anyone else have dissapointing mornings following a session? I did some tribalish focals yesterday using lots of silver, silver glass and frits. As I put each one in the kiln I was thrilled with the results, everthing shiny, reduced where I wanted it and couldn't wait to get up this morning to see the results but...
...Mediocre at best!
Could I have a problem with the kiln? Would the charcoal trick help? I wondered if too much oxygen is getting in the kiln. I have a bead door on it and the bung hole. I also open the main door to put completed beads in. It is really frustrating cos I think I've cracked it at night but in the cold light of day they're not so good looking.
Nete
p.s. I don't have a drink when I'm melting honest.

[GaysieMay]

I feel your pain Nete - I have learned to lower my expectations and always tell myself they were all a bit pants, so that in the morning I have the opposite reaction to what comes out!   

I don't use charcoal myself but I know others do, so it may be worth giving a try? 

[helbels]

I have only had a "WOW look at those incredible beads" moment about twice in my three years of lampworking!

[BeeBeads]

I'm still waiting ... sigh ...   

[Nicknack]

Me too. Double sigh!

[kerensky]

I feel your pain Nete - I have learned to lower my expectations and always tell myself they were all a bit pants, so that in the morning I have the opposite reaction to what comes out!    

I don't use charcoal myself but I know others do, so it may be worth giving a try?  

Reverse psychology - love it, LOL at this.

You could try the charcoal too.

[Blue Box Studio]

I seem to have kiln devils and not kiln fairies in my shedio too.

If you use charcoal, watch your carbon monoxide monitor - mine always goes off when I am using charcoal - so I stopped using charcoal when I am actually in the shedio, then when I advance the garaging cycle to finish, I put the charcoal in the kiln, me and the CM monitor come into the house.  You can hear mine going off from the other end of the garden, a neighbour complained about the noise (I was upstairs and couldn't hear it) but didn't ask if anything was wrong 

[nete]

Hmmm
Thanks for the replies but from what I've seen of all your creations they are brilliant!. Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself and I'll try the reverse psychology trick (or just be honest with myself that they were pants when they went in! )
I might have a dig round in the shed and see if I can find an old bit of charcoal. I assume I only need a small piece. Don't have a carbon monoxide monitor so no worries with the neighbours and noise. (Perhaps I should have one though ) Will keep you posted on the progress.
Nete

[julieHB]

At what temperature are you annealing your beads, Nete? It could be that the solution to your problem is just to lower the annealing temperature a bit. After reading the following article I started to garage at 500degC, and annealing at 510degC (well, that is what the controller says, I have not measured the actual temperature in my kiln). Hopefully you find it as useful as I did:

http://envisionsf.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/silver-glass-101-annealing-temperature.html

[nete]

Julie, thanks very much for that link. It is very interesting and I think I need to do some more experimenting, I currently garage at about 513c which is in reality about 520c, which is the same as the temperature is set for the annealing programme. (The gauge stops but the temp still creeps up to 520 on the controller) When I set it to anneal when I've finished working it holds this for 1 hour then drops to 454c for 15 mins then the programme ends and I generally turn it off and let it cool until morning. TBH I find the digital thingy quite hard to follow and the instructions with the kiln might as well have been in Swahili for what good they were. My OH tends to work the programme out and then I write out an idiots step by step! . Looks like this all may be a bit hot for silver glass. So I will play further. All the other stuff comes out OK and I don't suffer with cracking or anything.
Cheers, Nete