Bluetooth Beads!

Continuing with the excitement from the last kiln firing here's an image of something that went right. Turned out well both front and back. This is a rather simple bead to make just time consuming. An IBM Selectric typewriter element is used to give a sort of modern hieroglyphics; you can see the individual characters impressed on the beads if you look for them. Too bad there is not a Greek character ball in the studio texture toybox.

With a few spacer beads the Faience beads are strung on monofilament/fishing line temporarily, just to get an idea how they would look. They sure would be lovely strung with copper beads. We will call them “Bluetooth Beads”!

The bottom/backsides of these beads have no glaze on them, because there was no evaporation from that side, and therefore no salts could accumulate on the surface forming the glaze. That is the efflorescence in action that was mentioned in an earlier post. They were fired sitting flush against the kiln shelf. An aluminum hydrate shelf primer kept sticking to a minimum; sticking really wasn't a problem with this Egyptian paste recipe. The unglazed portion feels like a fine grain sandpaper or etched glass. The glaze side is a rather matte glaze smooth to the touch.

Egyptian Paste Bead Firing

Here is what I use to fire Egyptian paste beads in my electric kiln. This apparatus, a "bead island", is made of porcelain or any high fired clay for that matter; I like the B-mix clay body for this piece of kiln furniture, because it forms a thin point very easily. Once fired the bead island can be used many times. It's coated with two or three layers of kiln wash before each use. If it breaks I just make another..
Using the bead islands, allows me to form the bead from Egyptian paste, place it onto the tip of one of these peaks to dry and fire without ever having to touch it directly. Handling Egyptian paste after it dries would damage glaze that forms on the bead as it dries.

For smaller hole beads nichrome wire is used in my islands.