Well....what can I say. While starting out 2010 I'm going to refrain from creating anymore beads as shown in the pics. You might ask, "What the @#$%! happened?" The sad truth is: My bead wire sculpture was created during my first experience with stoneware. Prior to that I only worked with low fire clays. I was using my cute, little personal kiln to make beads for my jewelry. Well....inexperienced and dependant on a defective pyrometer, the temperature never did reach 2250 degrees.....so I thought! I finally gave up at midnight, shut the kiln off, woke up to see my new beads and cried! There you have it.....I would say that I definitely learned the hard way. I was determined to overcome this and not give up! I have :O)
My mistakes since then have been minor. I occasionally apply too much glaze around the bead hole which results in the little bead flowers that you see. Bill was given the lovely little vase by Jack Troy during a workshop in Syracuse. The only way to remove these beads is with a hammer which I haven't been able to do just yet. It always seems like to much work to just take a hammer to!
