First Murrini

Sometimes something very little can cause great excitement... take my first murrini for example!



Sorry it's such a blurry picture, but you have to realise I'm photographing something not much bigger than a pin head ;o) This is my camera on micro macro manual focus, with me trying to focus using one hand because my other is holding the glass!!

This murrini is a banana! Yes a banana! A banana on a blue background with a red border - just in case you needed help identifying it. It's very exciting! Yes, I pulled a little to quickly and a little too soon and I don't seriously think I'll be able to pick up a slice of this and place it on a bead -- but watch this space!

I was going to try and explain how I made it, but found this YouTube video from Corning that shows the process on a much larger, more easily understood scale -

Spot the gooseberry!  I had an idea to make some fruity beads and would like to make more and possibly etch them and put together in a bracelet. The one with white and blue flowers is using millefiore.  
The little lady is another idea I'd like to persue maybe as Goddess beads.
the two purpley beads are using opal lavender (I think!), Gelly's Sty pink, and intense black.  The black webs with the pink but not the lavender.

The Carleton Place Bridge St. Bazaar is this coming Saturday so I've been busy getting necklaces and earrings together for it.  I just had an order of Swarovski crystals arrive and I plan on using them in a few things too.

I stopped by David Paterson's today and am delighted as two or three of my beads have sold!

Yesterday was fun at the torch!!  I am starting to understand how the size and placement of the dots can create different patterns - sounds obvious right?  Not so, my green and black bead in this picture has tiny white rectangles between the big dots, I was thrilled when this happened.  It's all about how the glass spreads and I can't wait to get back to try more things.

A couple of these have murrini in them, I want to have another go at that too, I melted it in a little too much, and placed clear over top of one of them, which I have decided I should have done at an earlier stage to make sure I covered the whole piece.

I also used some violet yesterday and got a silver reaction onthe top right bead that I'm having a hard time trying to replicate.

I'm feeling inspired with the lovely Spring weather, green grass, budding trees and spring flowers! My favourite time of the year. You'll notice a few changes here as I try my hand at customising this blog to match my website, hopefully I won't do anything too dastardly.

Watch this space for new beads!

Here are a couple to whet your appetite -


I don't do florals, but was pretty pleased when I tried and this was the result.


This is a little hollow bead with millefiore