[cherie]

I hope someone can help me with this. I am on a HH and making small beads, I am setting my kiln (paragon caldera) at 960, bringing the temp down to 700, holding for 1hr. and then dropping down to room temp. The problem I am having is when I try to take my beads off the mandrel they are literally shattering in my hands. Not all of them, but most of them. I have learned to wear a glove on the hand that grasps the bead. My fingers were getting cut up from the glass. What could I be doing wrong?? I thought at first I was making too big of beads for a HH around 1inch, but this is happening to even the smallest beads. Am I annealing them wrong?? Im following the instructions from my manual. I use FF bead release and just read that it is better to dilute it with sterile water, I didnt do this, I used tap water. Could that be the problem?? Any input would be appreciated as I just got the hang of making cute little round beads with nice puckers and they are just shattering in more than two pieces...Help!!