Gen G starts forming the clay into the shape that she wants to be either a ball, a flat bead, etc and either add a hole or pieces of high temperature wire as needed. After the beads have been slowly air dried, and this drying time can take up 4-5 days in winter, each bead is cleaned gently with a damp sponge to make sure the surfaces are smooth. Re-drilling is usually required because with this cleaning process, the holes can be partially lost. Now the beads are placed in an electric kiln and fired to 1101Celsius. Then they must be completely cooled in the kiln before removing. This whole process takes about 24 hours. Once out of the kiln, each bead is painted with tiny brushes. Usually 2-3 coats of specially formulated underglaze colour is applied to each bead and then 2 coats of a clear glaze.
After complete drying, the beads are placed back in the kiln, this time on special supporting racks which I designed myself, and then through a second 24 hour kiln process.
Once this second process is complete, I can hardly wait to open the kiln and catch the first glimpse of the small treasures I have created! I hope you will enjoy my Beads as much as I do creating them. So …
Jen-e-sais-quoi
Source: http://artbyjeng.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-i-make-ceramic-beads.html
