Please help my beads are cracking!

[Flames From The Hart]

I hope I do this right. It's my first post.
I am having a problem with a certain kind of bead that I have been making for over a year is now cracking on me in the last month. I have probably made several hundred of them. The base is vetrofond black, silvered moretti ivory stringer is wraped around that, then encased with lousha clear. I have been batch anealing for over two years now, and I might have had ten beads crack on me after my very first ones. I recently bought a Chili Pepper so I could put them straight into the kiln.Thinking that my studio might be too cold. I did my first run yesterday and took them out this morning and two of them already cracked. Please help me !!!!

DeAnna

[Gardengirl]

First of all, DeAnna - WELCOME to LE
Actually , there's a thread right around here called "I'm Baffled" by Cosmo.
I think it's the Lauscha clear.
You should check out that thread - search around too....there's lots of complaints about encasement in Lauscha clear - I've had tons of problems too. Maybe consider switching clears to Vetro or Vetrofond Super Clear. I've had no problems with vetro so far (unless it was my fault for oogling the bead too much before I stuck it in the kiln)
Good luck!!

Oh yeah, it seems like Lauscha clear does NOT like silver underneath it and certian colors also make it crack. Are they spiderwebbing cracks all over? Usually that is a telltale incompatibility sign.

[FlameFilly]

Other people have been posting about lauscha clear cracking in this thread:

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...376#post949376

Maybe its a bad batch?

[Karen Hardy]

It's probably the Lauscha, hon.
You might want to get hold of a few rods of
another clear, like Vetrifond, and do a few test
batches. If you get no more cracking then you'll
know it was the Lauscha.

[Flames From The Hart]

Thank you very much everyone. Great advice so far. In the next couple of days I am going to try some different combos with different kinds of clear.If that don't work I'll try moretti black base with a different kind of clear.
DeAnna