About Me

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I am an artist, wife and mother, paraeducator, yo-yo dieter, and small town country girl. I love singing in my church choir, computer time, beading and making jewelry. And I love enameling! There is something very magical about turning powder into smooth, shiny, and colorful glass.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Making Messes

I wanted to finish enameling the filigree I blogged about earlier. I had these great roundelle shapes that I had already put on one coat of clear. I set my kiln temp at 1470 degrees and set about putting a layer of whiteThen I started on the transparent layers. What a disaster!

The enamel started pinging off while the beads were in the kiln. What didn't pop off melted onto the mandrel and cracked off when I tried to remove the beads. I threw them all in the trash. I'm not sure what went wrong. I previously had good luck with opaque enamel and I had the kiln set lower so maybe that had something to do with it.
 Next I tried the bead caps. Better, but not great. Not what I envisioned at all.
 I am going to try again with the temp set at 1460 degrees and see what happens. I hate to give up, so stay tuned! On a more successful note, these plain round beads came out great and I love the Autumn colors!

 

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