murrini tutorial please

[della]

I can do the starburst (striped barrel, poked in the middle), but I have not had much luck with more complicated ones. I have the japanese book with pictures in the back about murrini and there is one by a swiss man in one of Cindy Jenkins' books. Would any of you be willing to illustrate a more complex murrini tute? Thanks for thinking about it anyway.

Murrini Impaired in Renton

[juniemoon]

i would love to help you out, but im not experienced in murrini. hope someone else chimes in however!!

[chrisann]

what would you like to make?

[della]

Thanks for asking. Nearly anything, flowerish, checkerboard, abstract design, japanese-ish (crests for instance), whirligig. Willing to attempt anything y'all can explain to me.
Pam

[chrisann]

what kind of torch are u on and what is your honest opinion of your level of control of the glass. I guess I am asking if you are good at judging the heat base in glass and knowing the dif heat bases needed for certain techniques. Once I have a general knowledge of your knowledge I will know better where to start you off. Although I am by no means an expert LOL.
chris ann

[della]

I am on a minor, consider myself intermediate to advanced intermediate, do ok with heat control, encasing, very good with dots and complex twisties. I had thought to add to my second post (what do I want to make) that I greatly admire the murrini of a couple of the German ladies that post here, Manuela for one. Michael Barley will occassionally add murrini, the Japanese lampworkers will use cherry blossom murrini, which they can buy someplace. I know that this process is kind of like making Fimo canes, just with molten glass, which of course makes it that much more difficult. I certainly appreciate your help here Chris Ann.
Pam

[chrisann]

How about a rose murrini to start out easy and no component work, then an eye the same method. If you like those then I'll give you the steps for the nose and mouth and you can make a face, which would add in adding components to the bundle. After that maybe a butterfly. I'll have to get someone to show me how to draw with paint shop or if anyone knows if I can scan an image into paint and then upload it over here. If that doesn't work I'll make hard copies of the instructions and mail them to ya.
chris ann

[monarae]

If you want to edit an image in Paint, from a scan, you must save the scan as BMP or GIF or JPG. However, what you are saving is the WHOLE image and when you open it into Paint, you are opening a single component, and that can cause problems with editing if there is a lot of color elements and you need to rearrange them on your canvas.

For example, you scan a pic of an apple tree with a blue sky and sun in the background. You open it in paint and want to move the sun from the sky to the ground. When you select the Sun, and move it, you are left with a big white hole in the sky. If you want to keep the background sky, you will have to fill it with blue. Sounds okay, but when you use the fill tool on the hole, the fill color will overwrite the sky until it reaches a boundary of pixels, which the hole from moving the sun is not (a boundary that is).

I for one would love to see your tutorials, even though I'm not ready yet to make murini. I would like to suggest that paint is very easy to use if you draw with the simple premade shapes. You can also use the text tool to type explanations.

If this simply doesn't work for you, might I suggest that you draw it by hand, scan it, and save as a JPG (use the lowest quality setting to keep the file size small.) Additionally, you can use Word to type the explanantions and insert pictures (as "objects) from your scanner. Save the file and upload to LE so we can all use it.

If it still too much for your "digital" comfort, PM me and we'll collaborate to get this online.

Thanks for offering to do the tut!

Mona

[chrisann]

Ok I'll have to think about how I want to break it down. I may have my DD photo me doing the rose as it is very easy and I can use my didy sheild in front of the camera. The face components I already have all written out with diagrams in pen/pencil so I may break them down/ copy and then scan into jpg. I'll let you all know how I decide to go. And you can do a rose murrini, advance begginers can do one they are not hard at all, the most dif thing about them is keeping track of what petal you are on.
chris ann

[monarae]

Originally Posted by chrisann

And you can do a rose murrini,

You don't mean that I, me, Mona, can create a rose murrini TUTORIAL, do you?

Mona

[chrisann]

After you make one I betcha can
chris ann

[della]

Is this too cool or what!!!
Pam

[Listenup]

Have you tried this one?
http://www.listen-up.org/kitty/beads/murini/murrine.htm

-Kay

[della]

Thanks for the link Kay...they seem to be quite useful. I'll try it out this weekend.
Pam (della)

[hummingbird3172]

I am looking foward to this. I finally created some decent initials...lol...so it wou;d be nice to see a rose.

[Emily]

Cindy Jenkins's "Making Glass Beads" book (the intro one) has the full set of alphabet letters color coded to tell you what order to do each part of the letter. I think that book has some basic pattern murrini, too.

[chrisann]

It is pretty simple to make the rose. here is a supply list for a pink rose with red outline.

2 pink pastel rods
1 red pastel rod
1 green rod
1 black or brown rod
1 thick old scummy clear rod
2 chop sticks or 1/8" mandrels
BBQ mashers or equivilant

Heat the end (under 1/2") of a pink rod, gently squish into a hotdog shape
very thinly case in red make sure you DO NOT cover the tip of the rod. Take the other pink rod lay down a strip of glass about 1/3 the way around the hot dog, the middle part of this layer being slightly thicker than the beginning and end. Thinly case with red.starting about 1/3 of the way on top of the one you just did start your next petal and repeat step 1. continue this all around and round til you build this up as thick as you are comfortable pulling. When you have as much as you want then lay down a good stripe of green then a narrow stripe of black then green again for a leaf. Cap this with a good amount of clear and attach the chop stick/mandrel. Burn off the pink glass and do the other end. Heat your glass up by directing the heat on one side then the other but not directly in the middle, make sure you are turning your handles evenly YOU DO NOT WANT TO TWIST YOUR DESIGN. When the glass is nice and evenly HOT and moving come out let it get a little skin and pull, WITHOUT TWISTING. There you go.
try to make sure you don't cover your end so when you get lost on what petal you are on you can look at the end of the rod and see where you left off.
after each petal smooth the glass a little before the next is started so you don't trap bubbles. Try to keep your bundle fairly round shaped, I do this with the big mashers very gently.
when heating up your gather at the end come out of the heat on and off tho let the heat base sink in and build.
this is what you get, hope you like and can understand these instructions
chris ann

[della]

thanks Chrisann, looks like a keeper!

[chrisann]

I decided to post this as it's own thread so if anyone likes it they can rate it so it stays there.
chris ann