Quote:
Originally Posted by PatsyEmporium
What's "pitting"? Does that mean part of the bead isn't round or a pit has formed in the surface?
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That is when you get pits on the surface of the bead. Know what a adult who had really bad teenage acne looks like? With acne scars all over their face? That's "pitted". In lampworking you can get pitting from microbubbles you get from pressing then reheating your bead. The little bubbles form like almost microscopic acne on the surface of the bead then pop leaving ittybitty tiny scars. It's really quite ugly and happens very easily on certain colors. My particular nemesis is anything in the turqoise family. It pits if you look at it funny, and screams bloody murder if you press and then reheat (which you want to do to remove the chill marks). I've heard (but don't quote me) that it is caused by the metal molecules in the glass chilling more when pressed then the glass molecules do, then reheating the metals boils them off 'cause you're reintroducing those cold metal molecules too quickly to the flame. They boil, pop, then leave the horrible pits. Or something. Sounds logical to me.
Ooh, just had an idea... I've had a lot of luck sticking any old bead in the kiln to hold for a bit then bringing it back out and reintroducing it to the flame slowly to reheat it and do more work on it. Maybe I can make a turquoise bead, press it, put it in the kiln for a while to even out the temp, then put it back in the flame to fire polish (i.e. get rid of the chill marks) and continue working on it. Hmm, I will try that.