[playswithfire104]

I 'think' this will work. This will be a two part project. Make your beads that you want to be around the barrel - you will have to use a mandrel big enough so they will fit over your barrel.

Anneal and clean them.

Then put them in the kiln and ramp up to garaging temp. Let them sit in the kiln for about an hour.

In the mean time you can make your long bead. When it is pretty much shaped the way you want put a wrap or two or three around the bottom end - the end closest to your hand holding the mandrel. Make sure the wraps are wide enough so the 'ring' beads will not fall off.

Now here's the tricky part. You will need to keep your long bead warm enough not to crack but not hot enough to be soft. Get your ring beads out of the kiln and slide them over the top of the barrel bead. I'd use warmed hemostats or long tweezers. This is why you put the wraps on the bottem so they don't slide off and burn your hand.

Then finish by putting more wraps on the top of the barrel and into the kiln it all goes. You will probably want to do the last part fairly quickly so the ring beads don't get cool enough to crack.

You may also want to have a friend to help out the first time - I'm sure that more than two hands would be very helpful.

Does that make sense?