Encasing Pandora

I made a slew of encased Pandora beads yesterday. The photo shows all of the beads in the basic order they were made, starting from the beads on the right which were made first and the beads on the left which were made last. The first five beads (on the right) spent 7 hours in the kiln, and the three beads on the left spent 5 hours in the kiln before ramping down. You can see the color difference:Maybe encased, especially heavily encased beads, need to stay in the kiln a little longer than unencased beads. I think if these beads were made unencased, all of the beads would have dark purple and blue color.

In my last post, you can see two encased beads that were annealed for only 4 hours and got great color. Yet the beads on the left (above) annealed for 5 hours and got not much color. What's up with that? I think it's because the beads above have a much heavier encasing than my previous encased Pandora test beads.

I read a post this morning on the Lampwork, Etc. message board written by a beadmaker who got great color on her encased Pandora beads, though she only annealed them for a short time in the kiln. Ugh, I'm so jealous!!! Her kiln temp might be higher than mine, which I've heard is part of the "secret."

I'm taking my three pale Pandora beads and putting them back in the cold kiln right now. I will ramp my kiln up and leave them in there to anneal for another full cycle tonight. Hopefully they will change color, wouldn't that be cool?!