You dont really need the crock pot , but if it make you feel better use it.... Its never been proven the heat from the crock post helps in any way...
Anyway once marble or bead or whatever is done, you let heat bleed off piece by slowly removing it form flame, after "bead" loses red heat you gently borrow or plunge it into vermiculite... The vermiculite sort of forms a insulation cocoon around item and drastically slows cooling. This cooling is no alternative to annealing, its allows you to make many items and later batch anneal when you either get access to a kiln buy your own kiln. By the slow cooling you relieve some of the internal stress that can happen if outer shell of bead cools faster than core. The ideal is to allow the bead to cool uniformly, thus allow core heat to dissipate to shell evenly as total temperature drops.
It tales a bit to learn timing on plunge, if bead is to hot you can distort it, if it is allowed to cool to much it may crack before you get it cocooned....
Dale
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San Francisco - A Few Toys Short of a Happy Meal
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