Cubic zirconia compatibily issue
 

Hi,

It’s the first time I’ve been experiencing this kind of problem.
I’m embedding CZ (2mm grade AAA) without encasing them.
After a day or two, little craks are developping around the CZ, until the CZ pops out. I looks like an incompatibility issue to me. But this seem kink of odd since like I said I’ve never encounter this problem before.
Did anyone experience the same kind of problem ? Is there a fix ?

Thanks in advance for your help

PS, I forgot to mention that my bead go straight from the torch to the kiln. So it’s not a batch annealing issue.

Is there anything different about them or how you're using them?
I don't know how you are applying your CZs and I have no answers for you myself as I haven't used a cz without encasing but Kim Miles has some tips on her site. http://www.kimmiles.com/how-tos.html

Here's what she says she does if she leaves them on the surface without encasing.

"If I leave it on the surface, I heat it, push it a little deeper into the bead, and then heat it once more until the glass cups around the CZ."

I don't know if that is helpful or not but I hope you get it figured out.
I hate using CZs and having my bead get ruined somehow, it sucks! lol.
Good luck!

I never encase mine and I use 2mm czs. Are you heating after you apply it? I heat pretty heavily to make sure the glass "hugs" the cz.

I have never had one pop out afterwards. Hoping you find an answer.

another thought.... did you get the cz's from somewhere other than you usually do? maybe they aren't cast in place?

Thank you for trying to figure out with me what the problem was.

So I made another bead, a fairly small donut shape, plain effetre white, put 6 cubic zirconia on it (space them apart as much as possible). Really heat the whole bead, got it hot, pushed the zirconia in. I annealed it. I thought it was going to be OK... But I can now see a tiny crak developping around one of the CZ. ](*,)](*,)

Like I said, it's odd: it is the first time I've ever had this problem.

I have gotten cracks with effetre light pink flower petals. I don't use white, but it could be the same issue.

I'm going to echo an earlier question- are you sure these are the cast-in-place cubic zirconia? Have you bought a new package of them from a different vendor?

I leave cz's on the surface all the time and have never had one crack or pop out. I use the AAA grade, 2mm clear from pehnec.

~~Mary

I use what Mary uses. I can send you some to test along with yours. Just pm an addy :)

It's not the white - I've used the cz's with white. I would also say it is the cz's - I use what Mary and Suzy use also, the ones from pehnec.

Thanks for still trying to figure this out with me.
So I haven't change CZ. They are from the same stock I was using last year without that issue (I just don't recall the glass I was using then). Those CZ come from Penhec.
I've had that issue both with the pink and the clear CZ. So I've made 2 test beads last night: one with white effetre and pink CZ, the other with effetre clear and clear CZ. So far I can see the little cracks only on the white bead. I've tried to change white, so I've made earlier today another bead with pink CZ with CIM peace. I'll see what happens...

PS. Thank you very, very much for the offer. But since I'm using the same CZ, don't bother. I live in Switzerland and shipping costs are kind of high.

Just thought I keep you posted.
The beads with CZ and effetre white didn't make it.
But I seem to have no crack whatsoever when I switch to CIM peace (and it's been almost a week now). I've tried of few other opaque from CIM no problem, but I have some cracking isssue with the Kryptonite...

From those observations, I gather that there could be incompatibility issue depending on the glass color / brand. It's weird though...