Feather Murrini
 

Are there any tutorials out on this ???

Thanks

Our wonderful Claudia aka Glasting, has a fantastic one posted on another forum - I'll hunt it down and post a link for it asap!

De

Here it is:

http://perles-au-chalumeau.forumacti...nar--t1164.htm

I have talked to Claudia and received her OK on my (personal use only) typed version of her hand-written, step-by-step instructions from this tutorial. If you would like me to PM it to you, let me know.

De

Laurie -

You can make a twisty (tightly wound one following Kimberly Affleck's tute works best):

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3450

Make sure that you twist both clockwise and counterclockwise.

Cut one of each clockwise and counterclockwise ones to about 1/2". Put them on your bead side by side. Melt in halfway and rake to create a feather.

Hope this makes sense!

What an excellent idea, Hayley!

Regarding the link I posted above - as well as my "typed" transcription of her hand-written notes - I'm gonna double check with Claudia...maybe she would like me to send her the typed transcription and she can re-post it here in the *FREE* Tutorials section so everyone can have easy access....

No matter what, though, FULL CREDIT for this tutorial and any resulting murrini should go to CLAUDIA!!! It's the RIGHT THING TO DO! :)

De

The Japanese beadmakers use that technique to make leaves - it is in the Tonbo Dama book by Kogure and Aki (Akihiro Ohkama) demonstrated that in his presentation at the Gathering - but I have used it to make feathers.

hello, I post the transcription from DeAnne (thank you very much for your work !) with the pictures I've drawn for the tutorial :

Step 1: Heat a WHITE glass rod – you need a quite big quantity of glass, make a flat rectangle with a BBQ masher (arrow points to a “White Glass Rod”).

Step 2: Add a layer of TRANSPARENT COLOR (arrow points to “Lt. Brown Transparent”) Flatten it with the BBQ mashers.

Step 3: (Bracket points to “a half of a feather murrini”). Alternate WHITE and TRANSPARENT (about 8 to 10 layers).

Step 4: Turn the glass rod for 180 degrees (arrow points to “Lt. Brown Glass Rod”) Make the same process on this side. If you want, you can add another darker color for the top of the feather (about 5 layers) IMPORTANT: The last and the first layers should be opaque colors.

Step 5: Stick another punty to the other side of the glass, heat it well and pull (arrow shows “pull”).

Step 6: After annealing in the kiln if possible (arrow shows “you get a rod like this”). Cut this rod with (nipper?) the murrini may be quite thick (about 3-4mm).

Step 7:
*Put the murrini into the kiln.
*Make a WHITE STRINGER encased with TRANSPARENT LT. BROWN.
*Make Base Bead.
*Apply murrini with tweezers (arrow shows “paddle”).
* Heat the murrini and push it down with a paddle.
*Try to move the paddle a little bit to the bottom of the feather.

Step 8: (Arrow shows “encased stringer”) Heat the murrini well, apply a cold encased stringer on the top of the feather, move it to the bottom and apply the end to the base bead.

Step 9: Now the feather must be like this. When finished the feather, heat all the bead well. J

Merci beaucoup!!

Cheers
Kathy

Glasting,

thank you - thank you - thank you. I have been doing my feathers with single raked stringer and leaving them raised but I like this MUCH better - I have always admired your feathers.

Linda

Nice! Thanks for sharing!!

Can't wait to try this I am in lust over your feathers!!!
Thank you so much Claudia!!!
Very generous of you!

Awesome, Claudia, thank you so much!!!! :love:

feathers
 

Thanks for sharing Claudia..........Anita

OK folks - I just tried this on the Hot Head...creation of this gather grows large quickly!

I have a pair of stainless steel punties (thanks again Noodlesaurus!) and I had to sort of bend down the ends of the gather to make it connect to the punty at the top and bottom - so be prepared if you're going to use punties instead of just using the rods as Claudia's example shows. I opted to use the punties since the Hot Head is a relatively cool torch - the steel punties seem to help hold the heat in the gather so the final pull stays nice and evenly toasty.

I wasn’t able to get as many layers built as I’d hoped to – once the layered gather became about 1 ½” big, I knew I best punty up and pull as this is about as big as my Hot Head (at least from my past experience) can handle.

Here are some pictures - I got 3 layers of brown (should have used a less "icky" brown :( I think) and 4 layers of white; I topped it with 3 layers of Hades black and the 8" pull yielded 75 slices:


I've not had time to apply them yet and do the final step of putting in the center "shaft", but I'm hoping Claudia (or others who have successfully made/applied feather murrini) will come in and critique my efforts so far - good, bad or ugly! It's for the benefit of everyone, so let 'er rip!

De

De, Can't wait to see your murrini!!!

Claudia, thanks so much for your generosity in sharing your fabulous tutorial.

Marianne.

I was wondering about this technique, Thanks so much!

OMGosh...thank you so much EVERYONE !!! Truly appreciated and so very generous :)

Wonderfully explained. Thank you sooo much. Will be trying this soon :)

How cool is that...can't wait to try!

De, 75 slices, wowwww ! I am not sure on the picture if you used transparent colors between the opak layers, that makes a very realistic feather. a little thing that makes easier to pull the murrinis : make a thick layer of a glass color you don't like (it will be wasted) on both sides of the "cube" of glass bevor attaching the boro punties. (I hope you understand me, I am not very good in English...)

I understand you perfectly - thank you so much!!! And drats, I should have gone with the transparent!!! Maybe next time.

For the time being, though, I may try and experiment with these - just to get the "feel" for raking of the center shaft - maybe they will still make cute "Eaglet" (baby Eagle) feathers.

Thanks for everything Claudia! You're a true sweetheart and a generous teacher!

De

Claudia, your tut is awesome, thanks so much for it! I made these quite a while ago and making the murrini takes quite some time, patience and heat, but you can make soooo many feathers out of it, they'll last some time!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3354/...6ac36f062f.jpg

or...Claudia could sell them in her etsy store...

I know I'd buy the small left over ends that no one else wants because they're too small. I'm practically certain the regular sized ones would leave the shop lickity split.

That was a hint - hint, by the way...:D

amazing, anouk ! I am so happy about my beads from you :)

Wow, Anoukie - beautiful!!! :)

I took Claudia's gentle and helpful suggestions to heart - and tried again! Funny how I can mess up a perfectly good recipe with getting too off the path! Sheesh, will I ever learn?

Anyway, this time I stuck right to what I was supposed to do - using the Transparent color between layers of the white. I was far more patient and cautious - and a bit more condensed so that I didn't end up with a HUGE gather (well, it was still purty big for my little Hot Head - pfffttt!) Also, I heated and heated and heated that gather - to be sure all the layers contacted each other and the whole thing went very smooth before the pull. :)

So here's my second try; used White and Transparent Brown (as instructed!!!), and for the top part, I used Hades and a few layers of Transparent Smoke Grey to break it up just a bit.

What do you think? Better? I'm actually very happy with it! The pulled rod was about 12" - yielding over 100 slices:


You're an angel Claudia!

De

Nice Murrini De...and great bead Anouk :)

Didnt get a chance to make any today...first (real) torchtime in months since our move. Today was play day...getting re-aquanted with glass and a new work space.

I love this tut. I have been using it since you 1st posted the link. This is killer and it is free. How cool is that!

Gave it a go...we'll see when it comes out of the kiln if it survived. I may have tried too difficult of an application for a first try (but what's new!). I made a small blown vessel from Black Cherry Coral. I've had these rods FOREVER - waiting for something super special - and this was first time using them. I was trying for something really Southwestern looking - sort of terra cotta!

Applied 1 feather (wanted to do 3) but it got tricky! Getting the murrini hot enough to rake/apply the center shaft, well, my vessel just wanted to collapse!!!! I blew it out and tried again - but I'm not sure how well I did. I didn't want to keep messing with it 'cuz the other side wanted to collapse too (yikes!) so I just gave it a final blow and stuck it in the kiln.

If it comes out well, I'll be sure to post! Thanks again Claudia - it sure was fun!

With fingers crossed,
De