Wood Burning Bead Furnace
8/3/2023, Thursday, Week 1 of Pennsic
Thursday afternoon and evening, after having gone out to buy last minute supplies for the project, I got together with Tinker and her apprentice, Irene Purificato, to build a wood burning stove/furnace for making glass beads. The recipe called for 2 parts clay, 1 part sand, and 1 part peat moss. We substituted potting soil for the peat moss. It all got mixed with water.
Irene helped with the mixing. While the furnace was designed by Tinker, Irene developed the clay recipe. We played around some making animals while mixing it up and making a mess.
The furnace is built around a tin can with nails driven so that they are half in and half out. These nails help support the clay and the whole contraption is meant to be able to be transported to events. Tinker cut a hole at the bottom of the can for an air intake. She used the tube from a dead flash light to form the opening. I helped her drive in the nails. Once the frame was constructed, I layered in the clay both on the inside and the outside of the can, making sure that the ventilation hole remained open.
8/4/2023, Friday, Week 1
We left it out in the sun all day to dry.
Drying
That evening, we fired the clay using real wood coal.
Once the fire had been going for awhile, we then used a mattress pump to work as a fan to aspirate the fire and bring the heat up. While the furnace cured, we used it to make some beads.
Working At Night
We worked the furnace for quite awhile, adding fuel and making beads.
Then, we left It to cool.
The Coals
4/5/2023, Saturday, Week 2 of Pennsic
The next day I worked the furnace again, mostly on my own this time.
Me Working the Stove
I made beads from COE 104, and Tinker gave me some even higher COE glass to try. I also used some of the tessera from Murano, Italy and some of the glass from my hot shop that I had colored and pulled into cane. That glass was COE 96. The beads were cooled in vermiculite.
4/10/2023, Thursday, Week 2 of Pennsic
While our bead furnace was without forced air due to technical difficulties with the air mattress pump, Irontree Works was demoing a furnace that uses bellows to aspirate the furnace. The deal was if you ran the bellows you could keep the bead. So, of course I took my turn. The beads were being made with COE 104 soft glass.
After running the bellows, I talked my way into one turn at making a bead.
Making a Bead
Finally, I traded a rod of turquoise glass that I had colored and pulled into cane for a couple of beads made from that same glass.
Castle Wars 11/17/2023
I offered to do a demo class at Castle Wars with the stove. Unfortunately, no one came but I did get to make beads for about two hours. A good number broke, some did not. One of the ones that I made was a good representation of an Egyptian eye bead. I attempted to run the fan of the car but the inverter would not keep up. I ran off the Solar Generator for awhile before switching to a DC battery powered air supply. Since I did not have help, I used my knees to manage the air flow leaving my hands free. I worked only with the COE 104 soft glass.
11/25/2023
I set up the stove in the back yard hot shop. The goal was to make 15 beads with the hope of getting close to the quality that comes off the torch. My partner helped me speed the beads off to the kiln to prevent errors in annealing as had happened with the flame cooled beads at Castle Wars. Again, I used only COE 104 glass. I made some simple spacer beads, some eye beads, wasp beads, eye beads, one melon bead, and one S type.
The finished Ribe Beads came out great.
