Toasty Flowers...


Ever since I got my clay, I've been sketching ideas for jewelry pieces I want to do..last week I settled on a design and have been planning out the piece. Tuesday I started making the intricate flower beads that would've been part of the necklace. Because they were 3d and delicate, I built a wire hanger to hold them up off the ground until they were fired in the kiln. After 3 days, I had them the way I wanted them, and started the kiln. Unfortunately, when I went to put the beads in the kiln I had to keep the door open to position the wire hanger...this caused the heating coil in the kiln to turn up very high, trying to heat the inside while the door was open (something I didn't realize till it was too late). I closed the door, and in a matter of minutes, the alarm on my kiln goes off (the alarm is set to go off whenever the kiln temp gets over 100 degrees higher than what the firing program says it should be). In a matter of 5 minutes my beautiful flowers are reduced to shrivled, blackened lumps.







My Mcguyvered bead hanger (post Kiln)







My little black lumps.

So, today we have learned to put the bead hanger in BEFORE we turn on the kiln.