I’ve got a few years under my belt with glass, but when it comes to beads, I’m still a bit of a newbie. There are plenty of reasons for this; there are a lot of (really talented) folks that make beads already, an ugly import flood those folks are up against, and frankly they just never interested me. I make a few from time to time, but they’re not an every day thing for me.
I’ve undertaken a project that involves me making a LOT of spacer beads on 1/4″ rod so I’ve had the opportunity to learn how much I hate prying beads off of the rods.
For those who don’t make them, you coat your mandrel with something called bead release. It’s a liquid material, like clay slip, you dip in that then dries on the metal rod and creates a breakable barrier between the glass and the metal. This way you can get the bead off. In theory.
See, bead release has a problem, it’s clay like by nature. So if it over dries you risk it cracking and your bead freely rotating while you’re working on it. If it breaks you also risk the glass adhering to the metal, and it won’t come off without some percussive intervention. Much like deodorant, folks have their preferences for which bead release works best for the way they work, they glass they use, the humidity of their climate, the phase of the moon, etc, etc etc. I tend to lean towards Foster Fire’s Tough and Smooth when I use it. It’s designed for the higher temperatures used with borosilicate.
The problem is, it’s not a perfect material. There isn’t a perfect one really, it’s a closest approximation at best. Once you find you like, then you have to decide if you dip once or twice, flame dry or air dry, it’s a bit crazy, but it’s a necessary insanity.
Anyway…recently I was complaining about getting the beads off of the metal rods. I had made 36 of them, and I managed to get them all off, but some put up a fight. My wonderful friends made their suggestions for which releases they like, and several of them mentioned Fusion bead release. One person in particular was kind enough to send me a sample to try.
I have to say, I wasn’t terribly thrilled. Of the twenty beads I made, 12 of them are now awaiting the hammer. It dipped nicely and dried well, but it didn’t take the temperature as well and it cracked a lot easier than my Foster Fire. Plus the loss rate was unacceptable. On the upside, they weren’t terribly complicated, and the glass I’m using is one of the more inexpensive ones. It was a learning experience.