In article ,
vj wrote:

suggestions are welcome.
i haven't found anything like this for the Bali silver or Hill Tribe
silver yet [couldn't find the right posts]. i do have the link for
Bali i can use on my site, but need to figure out what to put on the
actual flyers that go with my jewelry display.

The only suggestion I would make is that you could elaborate a little
more on annealing... a subject about which little is commonly known,
even to many newer lampworkers. I wouldn't mention it except that your
overview *is* so comprehensive, and it seems like a good place to
introduce another level of understanding about this process and maybe
start changing the public idea of the annealing process. Annealing is
more than just slow cooling; every kind of glass has a fairly specific
annealing point at which it is neither too solid nor too liquid, where
the molecules are "relaxed" enough for stress to be alleviated, but not
fluid enough to move into new stress-causing positions. The piece of
glass must be held at its annealing temperature long enough for the
temperature to equalize throughout the piece. If it is ramped down
through the annealing temperature rather than held there, the core will
remain warmer than the outside and full annealing will not take place. A
piece that is slow-cooled in a kiln will be more stable than a piece
that was not, but it is NOT fully annealed! Glass that has an annealing
point of 970 will not anneal at 1000, and it will not anneal at 940.
Larger pieces take longer to anneal, and to safely cool, because it
takes longer for the core and the surface temperatures to equalize.
However, more is not better; there is no benefit to holding it at the
annealing temp longer than the minimum it takes to anneal. It usually
won't hurt it, either, but it's not really a good selling point; the
soak time for beads is only around ten minutes. Holding glass at its
annealing point for an extended period can cause it to slump or stick
eventually; at an annealing temperature, the molecules *are* moving...
just slowly.

Last but not least, glass also has a strain temperature a few hundred
degrees below annealing temp, at which it is most likely to crack during
cooling. Soaking it at the strain temp can help reduce loss of even
properly annealed pieces during the cooling cycle.

I by no means expect you to include this long-winded explanation in your
overview, I just thought I would put it out there, as information that
seems to be not widely circulated even in lampworking circles!

--
-Kalera

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