17g nichrome wire for glazing beads!

[kre8ivLizard]

Strong enough to string beads on for glaze firing?

Plan on doing about 4-5" cuts, and laying on laid-down kiln posts. So about 3-4 beads per wire during a firing. Then adding another post on top to keep wire from rolling while hot.

[liambesaw]

Depends on how heavy the beads are.  I'd say 5 inches is too long for 17 gauge.  That's only 1mm thick.

[neilestrick]

I'd invest in the thicker bead rods if you plan to do this regularly. I think they come in 9 gauge. The holes will be larger, but the rods will hold up a lot better than the wire. 

[Bill Kielb]

22 hours ago, kre8ivLizard said:

Strong enough to string beads on for glaze firing?

 

We made a few porcupine balls made of clay and light gauge  wire  sticking out a few inches  for small  beads. Stacking a few on each tine which are all pitched upward.  You can even bend little stops along the way if the beads are fully glazed and you can’t have them touch at all. It’s been pretty useful. 

Definitely clean all glaze residue out of the hole in the bead else you will have a permanently decorated porcupine ball.

[kre8ivLizard]

3 minutes ago, Bill Kielb said:

We made a few porcupine balls made of clay and light gauge  wire  sticking out a few inches  for small  beads. 

Would love to see a pic if you have one? Cannot quite envision 

[Bill Kielb]

@kre8ivLizard
Wish I had it handy to take a pic of,  they are in one of the storage boxes,  (was just lookin) ha! It’s just a small thrown dome type bowl turned upside down and wires were inserted in it sticking up a few inches, spaced an inch or so apart.

Bisque and fire for a useful porcupine bead holder

[Chilly]

On 4/27/2021 at 3:42 AM, kre8ivLizard said:

laying on laid-down kiln posts.

I did this with longer, thicker wire, and had some hanging off the end.  Put an bead on the end, helps to weigh the end down, helping to prevent bending the wire in the middle.

Note the word "helps".  Don't overload the wires.

 

[kre8ivLizard]

On 4/29/2021 at 5:50 AM, Chilly said:

Note the word "helps".  Don't overload the wires.

 

LOL, I was planning on just putting like 3 beads per wire. But I like that idea of counterweighting. I'll have to experiment with some generic beads for the first load. I'd hate to put the first load in and have a failure where it took me 30-45 minutes of handpainting designs per bead!