Home made jewelry racks

[JohnnyK]

Here is the latest in advancing my jewelry glazing...Rather than going out and spending a chunk of change on some manufactured jewelry racks, I decided to make my own.  Hopefully the wire won't sag and everything stays separated in the kiln which is firing as we speak.

[Mark C.]

Best laid plans of mice and men they say

show us an after photo

[Bill Kielb]

We have done a fair bit like that although we just put them on stilts turned sideways and stacked. The wires would sag  but never enough to touch the shelf and the pendants (in this case) did not slide to the middle thank goodness. These were cone six firings. I did start bending the wire over the far side of the posts to limit the sag a bit but they were just stilts turned sideways so friction was my friend. Your rig looks way better!

[LinR]

I have done something similar but with  a post in the middle of the wire to prevent sagging.  Lin

[Bill Kielb]

I’ll just add, Marcia (My Marcia) made a ball (of clay)  with Kanthal spikes sticking out in all directions. . She could bend those wires and hang a boatload of earrings off that thing.  Pretty cool idea for tiny stuff.

[JohnnyK]

Major fail, but lessons learned. I found that the jewelry racks have to be fired to vitrification. The pics show why. These racks were just bisque fired. The holes on the jewelry pieces were just big enough for the wire to pass through and the holes shrunk to bind on the wire. So the holes have to be drilled a little bigger to keep them loose on the wire. The sagging caused the pieces to touch and fuse together... I may be able to salvage 4 or 5 pieces if I can get the wire out. I guess I'll be making new racks and firing to ^6. Then I'll test fire with a few scraps before making a production run. 

[Min]

I wouldn't use your regular cone 6 clay, it's still going to slump, more and more so with subsequent firings. April 2020 C.M. has a kiln post recipe from Jeff Diehl that he uses up to cone 12, EPK 25, XX Saggar 25 and  grog (30 mesh) 50. Another recipe that would probably work would be a mullite setter mix. C.M. June 2017 article from Glynnis Lessing making kiln setters ^10 using 20 Talc, 25 Tennessee Ball clay and 55 Mullite (100 mesh). 

 

 

 

[LinR]

Ouch!  My method was to place 3 posts in a row.  On top of that was a 1 inch post with a hole in the middle on its side..  The wire went through the 3 holes.  The middle post kept the wire from sagging.  I don't think you can have much distance between supports of the wire if you have much weight at all on the wire.  This method used the kiln furniture that I already had.  Lin

[Min]

4 hours ago, JohnnyK said:

Major fail

I wouldn't call it a major fail at all, they didn't tip onto the elements, didn't hit the bricks, didn't make a glaze mess on the shelf. I think you were very lucky with how it turned out, not a major fail. You lost some pieces, no biggie.

[oldlady]

johnny, you have provided a wonderful lesson in thinking it out and redesign of something that did not come out the way you planned.   there are lots of new folks who will read this and not do the same thing and should thank you.   well, i hope they will read it first.

[Roberta12]

Thanks for sharing the info!!  

 

[JohnnyK]

Thanks to all for the insight and support! 

[Mark C.]

yes a body made for kiln furniture is best. Mins post above covers that.This eclay boidies are made for kiln furniture like stilts

best laid plans of Mice and men