How to Build a Jewelry Kiln

Making a jewelry kiln is an inexpensive alternative to purchasing a professionally manufactured heating tool. The tools and skills needed for making a jewelry kiln can already be found in most homes, or at a local discount retailer. Building the jewelry kiln will take less than one hour to complete.

Take a medium sized, eight inch in diameter, ceramic flowerpot and cover the outside of the pot completely with aluminum foil. Thick or heavy-duty foil should be used. This flowerpot kiln will work accurately as a burn out oven.

Poke holes in the foil to open the water drain in the flowerpot. Tear away the excess foil dangling inside the flowerpot and remove. The holes will be used to ventilate the jewelry kiln.

Bend a wire coat handle and thread it inside of the water drain. Cut the wire coat hanger, and bend the prongs back toward the water drain hole. Press the wire prongs firmly onto the pot. The wire hanger will serve as a handle for lifting the flowerpot kiln while it is hot.

Adding a heat source to the flowerpot kiln can be accomplished in two ways. A hot plate can be used, and is the most portable method. Using an electric hot plate with a raised coil will work best in the kiln. The eight-inch flowerpot will fit perfectly on a standard size hot plate. An outdoor grill side burner can also be used as the heat source for the kiln. The grill burner will allow a higher degree of temperature to be reached.

Place a piece of wire mesh screen onto the heat source. Make sure to bend the ends of the screen downward, creating “legs” on the screen. This will allow the screen to site nearly an inch above the heat source, preventing a fire inside the kiln.

Insert the item to be fired onto the screen. Cover the piece of jewelry or glass with the flowerpot, and turn on the heat source. Follow the guidelines for firing the item inside the kiln by adjusting the temperature controls on the heat source.