!help! with color loss
 

Any ideas would be appreciated on why colors seems dull or faded when I open the kiln but looked vibrant and exciting when I finished the piece and put it in a hot pot of vermiculite??????????? This can be silver colors or reduced colors. I fire to nearly 1,000' , hold for 45 min. overnight cool down.
Sadly enough, the reverse NEVER happens-- I open the kiln to find a color more intense than when I put it in.:confused: :confused: Help!

I'm not sure but could it be your kiln has a reducing athmosphere wich causes all reducing colors ( turqoises, aqua's, rubino, other gold pinks, iris gold, iris green , raku etc etc) to reduce a bit in the kiln? A reducing athmosphere can cause a greyish haze on your beads, try putting them in a bowl with toiletcleaner ( dunno wich one, but some people do this to remove the silver sheen on copper green). Otherwhise, a night in coca cola might help too.

Suzanne

ps don't try this on reduced beads wich you want to be reduced, you might wreck them...

Good point, Suzanne!

Yeah, what Suzanne means is that the toilet bowl cleaner solution (2 parts with 1 part water in a glass jar, and it can be re-used) or a Coke soak overnight is good for getting the greyish metallic scummy stuff off of turquoise and copper green beads.

Thank you , I was hoping you would chime in, I remembered you did talk about the toilet stuff :) ( now that sounds weird)

Thanks for the idea..... now I'm wondering how a kiln can have a reducing atmosphere? should I open the peephole a bit during firing? It is an AIM kiln with one bead door.

I would think it would be difficult to have a reducing atmosphere in a kiln with a bead door, since a reducing atmosphere is a low oxygen one. With a bead dorr you would likely get plenty of fresh air in the kiln - especially as you are using the bead door.

Can you post pics of the beads that you are talking about?

I was thinking the same thing. Believe me, it's too easy to get reduction scum on the turquoises and copper green. Most of the time I get it when I'm too lazy to "fine tune" my flame to a more oxydizing one. I use those colors a lot, and it's a good thing the toilet bowl cleaner solution works or I would be throwing those colors out! LOL!

Snobol brand is the best one I've used, BTW. :D

I have no idea how a kiln developes a reducing atmosphere, but I do know my kiln has it. I took out the little peeking brick in the front, and no more grey film on my beads.

it could be the glass too. If it is a striking glass 1000 degrees may be hot enough to begin the striking phase with some and changing the color. Most of us are using lower temps these days like 930 and holding for a longer time 2 hours to mix silver glass beads with our regular color work.

My first thought was the kiln is too hot. I've dropped mine to 920 I think.
Also, some colors really like to go directly into the kiln from what I have seen.

This thread is eight years old so hopefully they figured it out by now. :lol:

Crazy!! It popped up in just reading the front page of tips and techniques, so I answered it not realizing it was so old!! Too Funny!

In a recent class with Hayley Tsang Sather, she talked about Nnealing and temps and color loss......some of the loss can come from getting struck or reduced glass too hot while encasing melt in.....the other topic was a lesser garage temp and adjusting the temp/hold and cool down cycle. Also discussed oxidizing atmosphere in the kiln. You might try contacting her directly...She shares so much info....