Simple Barnacle Murrini Tutorial

[FishBulb]

If you want to make easy and organic barnacle murrini for your seashore beads, here is a tutorial for doing so.

You'll need:

2 bent or otherwise cruddy mandrels, at least 3/32
Clear
White
Two types of gray -- I used Fossil Medium and Dark Gray Medium but any grays will do
Black

Pull your black into two or three stringers before you begin. I neglected to do so and had to wing it with full rods.

1. Melt a fair sized gather of clear on the end of one of the mandrels. Make sure the mandrel is red-hot at the end.

[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

2. Apply a layer of white, making sure the white touches the mandrel entirely and also completely covers the clear on the other end of the ball. Apply a second layer. You can see the second layer being formed over the first:



3. After melting the white into a smooth ball, apply four lengths of the gray of your choice, making sure all four lengths touch the mandrel and each other at the other end:




4. Apply your other gray, making sure it touches the mandrel and each other at the other end:



Hold on for more...

[FishBulb]

5. Place your black stringer on top of the thicker of your grays. This can be jagged (thankfully, 'cause it is on mine) because it will pull out, and it will also look okay on an organic murrini like this:



6. By now you're getting quite a collection of glass at the tip of the ball from all the stripes meeting each other. Heat and pull some of this off with tweezers:



7. Now heat the tip thoroughly so the stringers, stripes, white and clear are all hot right through:



8. Heat the end of your second mandrel until glowing and push it straight into the heated tip of your ball. Make sure the mandrel pushes through all the layers of glass but do not drive it in too horribly far:



Please note there is no need for the assembly to be vertical at this time. I had to hold it this way to take a photo since my ungrateful offspring was nowhere to be found when I was doing this, and I had to take these pics myself.

9. Once the second mandrel is in, hold the assembly horizontally and begin to heat gently. NOTE: Do not begin to pull the murrini while the stripes are not completely melted in. These are not yet melted in all the way:



Hold on for part three...

[FishBulb]

10. After turning the whole assembly carefully through the flame, being careful to not twist the glass, it should be fully melted in like this:



Now you're ready to heat and pull.

11. Heat the whole thing to red-hot, again being careful to not twist the glass. You can manage this by turning both mandrels in the same direction at the same time. Once the whole thing is red hot, remove from the flame and count slowly to two or three, then gently begin to pull:



Pull slowly so you don't get incredibly thin parts (unless you want them that way!). I do this vertically with the thicker part of the pull at the higher point, because the heat will travel to this thicker part and help to even the pull. Keep pulling until you can't pull any more:



12. Lay the piece down and cut the ends off the pull with a glass nipper. Sorry, but that pic didn't turn out!

13. You should now have a length of stripey cane that looks like this:




Hold on for one more post!

[FishBulb]

You'll want to trim them fairly thin. Here is a barnacle murrini chip next to a regular murrini chip:



If you make them thin, they will be less likely to draw inward on themselves.

To use: Heat the spot on the bead where you want it to go, press it on (after preheating on your torch marver or on top of your kiln), heat and press it on gently with your marver. Reheat and voila!

[volkanokaren]

I'm holding on Angie! oh lol we must have posted at the same time.
You have made an awesome tut.Great pics and clear instructions,
Thanks so much,I love the fishbulb barnacle and will try them in my beads.

Karen
Volkano Exotik

ripz

[squid]

fantastic!!

[FishBulb]

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. Also, please show your beads with barnacles!

[beadmama]

Angie you are so sweet!

Thanks for the tutorial!

Becky

[Vena]

Love it! Thanks.

[anitah]

Thanks, great tutorial....can't wait to try it. Anita

[Rareripes]

Angie..what a fantastic tutorial! I honestly think I could try murrini after reading.I still have trouble with twisties and hopefully with Mary Lockwoods tut on encasement..will be able to that much better.Its amazing how many little details have to be planned out way before assembling a bead. Fascinating stuff!

[starshine]

Thanks so much! You did an excellent job!
Thanks for sharing.

[redsunset]

You did a great tutorial. I've been playing around with starfish and sand dollars so I can't wait to add this element.

Thanks so much!

Kathy

[Pat]

Thanks Angie. Nice tut. If you use ss chopsticks that are rather cheap it is easier not to twist either hand. Learned this tip from Kristen Franzen Orr.

[lamplighter]

Thanks so much Angie.

I've been watching this post. It looks awesome. I can't wait to try it ... I'll be working in Bullseye though along with enamels for the beach bead. Fun ... fun ... fun.

Hope it turns out half as well as yours!!

[Lara]

Thanks, very cool.

[tweeky clothespin]

Thank you so much. You make it look so easy that I am going to try this technique later today.

[HONEYBUNNY72_99]

I made some up today.I will try them on beads tomorrow

[HONEYBUNNY72_99]

I have beads in the kiln! Thank you for making this tutorial

[j2canoe]

Great Tutorial Angie!!!!!! Thank you so much!!! Cheers! Joan

[LAJ]

Great tute! One question though, which black did you use? transparent or intense?

[FishBulb]

Lea, I just used the regular Moretti black transparent. I think either one would be fine though!

I'm glad people are enjoying the tut! Please do show your results. I'd love to see them!

[praxidis]

A million thanks for posting that! So very cool...my kids have been asking for some "ocean themed" beads and I can't wait to try to make your barnacles!!
Thanks again-
Prax

[rosebud101]

Angie, this is an amazing tutorial. Thank you for sharing!

[Dreamscapes Studio]

Thanks Angie! That is sweet of you to share that with us!

Cheryl

[Rose Leslie]

Awesome. I will try this in the morning. That is great. Thank you so much for this.

[TTreasures]

Angie,
Thanks so much for being so generous and sharing this tut. I have been wanting to try this and your instructions were very clear and the pictures so helpful. Great job!

Pat

[lunesse]

This was fab, and so fun to read, too! Thanks!

[Firebug]

Angie you're a sweetheart to post this tutorial!! Thanks so much!

Cheers
Kathy

[midniteburner]

Oh girl, you did a fantastic job on this tutorial!!!!

I can't believe the pics turned out so good! I don't know how you managed to do it with everything else you were holding...

I know about the "ungrateful child" thing too. ugghhh....

Sara