I use 1/16 inch stainless steel rods to mount the beads upon. Buy these at your welding supply house. A pound costs me about $5. They come in 36" lengths, and these I snip with a wire-cutter to about 6 inches. I only hang 3-4 beads per rod otherwise during firing the rods will bend. If the rods bend, they may bend all the way down to a previous row, fusing some of the beads together. Worse yet, they may fuse themselves to your kiln shelves or posts which would require repair or replacement altogether.

There are lots of ways to load up the beads into the kiln. I start out with a shelf an inch off the bottom so that air circulates easily. This is the first level.

Here is the next level. In this instance I am using plate setters to stack up the beads. In the past I have used nothing but kiln furniture stilts, one right on top of the other all the way to the top. But the plate setters give a sturdiness that I might not otherwise have.

This is about as full as I'm going to take this batch. I could probably stack a few more on top, but this is all the beads I have to fire at the moment.

The kiln is firing. With a glaze firing I put it on low for 3 hours. Then medium for 3 hours. Then high for 3 hours. Then I take out the wedge and shut the top. Since I began kilning this way I have had virtually no pitting and other glaze problems.

Here is what the beads look like the next morning after the kiln has cooled down all night long. Shiny .... pretty...

And here they are off the rods and ready to go.