Pottery

Making a Bead Tree for the Kiln

My newest ceramic project has been making pendants using lace imprints. While I only glaze one side of star ornaments, pendants, I felt should be glazed all the way around. After all, whenever I wear jewelry, it always manages to flop around to the wrong side. Therefore, I needed bead tree, but after spending hours trying to find the most affordable option that also made sense for pendants, I came up empty. Amazon has two available —ย Small Bead Rack w 4p 6″wireย andย 12 Piece Bead Tree Rack.ย Even the sturdy replacement wires for the commercial bead trees were costly to purchase.
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This is my original bead tree design. Please don’t reproduce this for sale. Thanks!
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So I decided to make my own. I found Nichrome, 14 gauge wire on eBay, the same wire used in the high-fire stilts I bought, and ran one load with it propped on kiln posts. The wire sagged when the span between posts was larger 3″, and the posts were prone to falling over, especially when stacked (I’d run out of tall ones). I lost a few pendants on that first firing, but there was good information learned: 1) I needed a short span with a prop that wouldn’t shift, and 2) I needed tile protection for my kiln shelves.
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The width of my kiln shelves determined the size of my bead tree. I have 20″ x 10″ half rounds. My finished bead tree is 10″ long, 4″ wide and 2 3/4″ tall. The span between the four vertical supports is 3″. At first I cut out holes to run the wire through, but then considered it would be easier to load up the wire and let it rest in grooves. I also intially made the design for two parallel wires, but added a center run in case I needed to fire wider pieces in the future or wanted to sneak in a row of little beads between the pendants. The setup provides some flexibility of use. The long horizontal slab that the tree is built on provides the kiln shelves protection from accidental drips.
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How to build a bead or pendant tree. Shucks, let’s call this bit a “Pendant Castle”.ย 

** This is my original design. Go make one for your own use, but please don’t reproduce this for sale.**

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1. Measure your kiln shelf and determine how you will orient your pendant castle on the shelf and choose the desired length of your castle and number of vertical supports needed. I could have made mine much longer, but I wanted to be able to turn it on the short side and leave room for other pieces on the shelf, so I went with 10″ wide. With an approximate 3″ span, this required four vertical 1/4″ thick vertical supports.
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2. Determine the needed height of your vertical supports. My pendants are usually not taller than 2″, but most have been 1.75″.ย  Figure that the hole for the wire will be about 1/2″ down from the top edge and leave 1/2″ clearance at the bottom. This is the height of your center supports. Add in another 1/4″ inch for the thickness of the castle base, and you will have the height of your end supports.
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3. Determine the needed width. My outer holes are 2 1/4″ apart. This leaves room to run two wires of 2″ wide pendants at a time. Granted, they would extend beyond the drip base on the outer edges, but I’ll forgive them that. I’m currently making oval letter pendants that are only 1″ wide. If you want to add a third wire, figure in your desired pendant width with an extra 1/2″ clearance (1/4″ for each side).
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4. Roll out a 1/4″ thick slab and cut out your base and walls. Since I wanted 10″ total length, I ended cut out a 9 1/2″ long by 4″ wide base. (TIP: Don’t lift the base up. If you pull it off your work table, it may not lay flat after it is fired. I rolled it and left it alone until it was firm enough to turn the whole castle over so I could clean up the edges.) I then cut two 4″ x 2.75″ vertical supports for the ends and two 4″ x 2.5″ supports for the middle. Here’s where I went wrong – I attached them to the base slab BEFORE cutting out holes. Don’t do that. Mark where your holes need to be and punch them out before building the castle.This is the same if you choose to use grooves on the top edge, though they are easier to add later. Depending on how fresh your clay is, score and slip or just gently compress the joints together. The reason I chose to attach the end supports to the outer edge of the base has to do with the moment arm. If that wire got heavy, the outer supports would have a little more protection against that pulling rotation. (There was a little engineering for you… alas, education not wasted after all.)
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Other projects:

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