Frit Disaster!

So the other day, I was torching... yes, tiger beads and I've been making tons of Duo / Split Personality Hearts as I make the tiger beads.  When I pull a twistie, I always hate that there's a bunch of glass that didn't pull and it usually ends up in a water glass. Honestly, glass costs too much and I hate to waste it!

I've trained myself to take the ends of the twistie punties and to quickly turn them into little off mandrel hearts. Hearts are some of my favorite beads to make! And for tiger beads, you use a ton of ivory and black twisties. I've been dipping the hearts into frit, but only on one side, to create an elegant, understated black and ivory with a colorful version on the other side.

So I had just pulled a twistie and was in the beginning stages of making a heart with the left over pull,

When a disaster struck!  I somehow managed to knock over a jar of my FAVORITE frit! Before I knew what happened it was rolling down my apron and onto the floor!

I put my punty in the kiln and carefully got up. I was able to save just this much from my apron pockets:

I got the bright idea to put the swept up bits into metal trays and hold the kiln about 500 degrees. NOT a good idea! Sure, the inert materials burns off but all the ash is still in the frit! C'est la Vie! Thank goodness, they sell refills and I can save a few bucks on the jar!