09 March 2016

Firing Complete


I've now completed the glaze firing of the last of my special project pieces...

Here is a pic of the top shelf - there are a few pieces on the other side of that cone shaped bead holder (they are not beads but are glazed all over) and the rest are on bead racks on the lower shelf.












the nichrome and kanthal wire that I use to fire beads and special pieces becomes discoloured in the high firing...




To bring them back to a nice silver colour I had a wonderful tip from bead maker extraordinaire, Carolyne Brennan  of Hot Dot Designs.  Carolyne suggested I use gilders paste and it has worked a treat.

showing discoloured wire loop


First I sand any loose metal particles off the wire using wet and dry sandpaper

gilders paste mixed with a small amount of low odour Turps


Then I paint on the gilders paste and the next day I can buff it up to a nice shine.

Fiddly but worth the effort..

I'll post an after shot in my next post...

Edit: Linda hadn't heard of gilders paste which is used mostly by metal jewellery makers so here is a pic... as you can see it comes in different colours





3 comments:

Linda Starr said...

never heard of gilder's paste, interesting ,how does it react in the next firing ?

Linda Starr said...

oh just realized I have fired pieces )tiles and pendants) with wire inserted into the clay and after firing they are black, must try this on the finished pieces.

Anna said...

Hi Linda
I'll add a link to the gilder paste makers site for you. It is put on after all the firing is done.