pit or pin holes in glass beads
 

Newbie question
I am getting tiny pin or pit holes in my elongated glass beads. Am I getting my glass too hot? working too close to the flame or too far. it is driving me crazy. the beads are ruined. can this be fixed?
What am I doing wrong ? Please help !

What colors are pitting (or are all of them?)? For example, some of the teal blues, like CIM Pulsar & Azure, pit on me because I'm on a HH and cannot adjust the fuel/oxy mix; the HHs run fuel rich and the metals in the teal blues don't like it!

Alli

I am using efferete clear glass, and melting my frit onto the glass before applying it to my mandrel. I am using a shaper to shape the glass on the rod and then flattening it. I have created 2 beads the same way without problems. the last 3 beads have these pit or pin holes in them. I don't know if this was caused by too long in the flame, too close to the flame or because of too many time rapid cool in the shaper ?

Sometimes if that happens, I can let the bead cool a little bit, then working far out in the flame, gently heat it up again to allow the surface to "heal" a little. I can't hurry it, have to go slow to allow the glass to flow into the pinholes and heal over, at least to a good extent.
And like Alli said, some colors are more prone to it than others. And working farther out usually helps avoid the problem, as does not getting the glass quite so hot.

Oh, and for the beads you already made, you could try etching them to see if you are happier with them that way.

Sometimes that is caused by the brass or graphite marvering. Try different glass combinations and then make careful notes of which colors pit when marvered.

Oh wait...did you say you are using frit? What kind of frit? Because many of them will pit when marvered. You just have to experiment and see which ones do that and which ones won't. Been my experience for years, so that's why I won't let beads with frit touch a graphite marver. You would have less problems with brass presses, but some glass frits will still pit. Like the violet purples, blues, and turquoise (copper blue) colors.

the only way i can avoid frit pits is to encase just after applying frit and before heating to shape.

Yes - often frit will do that and I'm not sure why. I just try to avoid having those frits on the surface and also encase those favoite turquoise colors. I have never been able to find a way to avoid it on the Hothead. Sorry not to be of more help to you.

thank you everyone for this advice , I really appreciate it.