Here is a quick tutorial on how I prepare my murrini when I either have nothing better to do or I am planning on making something with a lot of murrini.
Here is a tutorial on making fish murrini:
http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=63699
Fire polishing murrini is completely unnecessary, but it makes them look better, and reduces scum and bubbles somewhat (normally those aren't a problem though).
I am only fire polishing them because I am completely out of lauscha clear and am having glass withdrawal.
Murrini are slices of a rod which has an image or pattern in the cross section. These have various fish, and range from 4-6mm.
First, what is fire polishing, and why do it? Essentially I slightly slump the murrini so that they glaze over. This can reduce scum and make it easier to use the murrini. Also, it makes them look a lot nicer, and makes them more fun to hoard.
To start, I lay all my murrini out on a graphite pad. I use graphite because its all I have, I'm not sure how kiln wash would work.
Note: The kiln door leaks heat, I should not have spread the murrini out so much, the murrini further from the door got cooked a lot more than the ones close to the door
You will notice a short of some thickish lauscha clear, I will watch this rod until it slumps, which tells me that the murrini are probbably glossing over.
I then ramp up my kiln to 1300 and hold it there
until the clear rod is bent up, I then turn off the kiln and
remove the lid to vent it:
The murrini are so small they can take a lot of temperature abuse, so there is no need to ramp it down slowly.
You may want to use a lower temperature to start, I have had slumping as low as 1200, and the kiln door really leaks heat.
Don't end up with some puddles on the floor.
If you heat them a little too much, a bit of graphite sticks to the murrini:
You will notice that this only happened to the convict tangs and starfish, this is because they are the furthest from the kiln door and hence were hotter.
To clean it off, you can rub it off onto a sheet of paper and it will be fine.
I then wash them with soap and rinse them to remove any fingerprints (would be a waste of time to go through all this trouble only to have all the oil scum the surface), don't let any fall down the drain!
Dry them off... From now on I will only handle them with tweezers.
This picture probbably best shows the difference fire polishing can make.
I finally lay them out on the graphite again, in places easy to pick up and remember.
And into the kiln to be preheated to annealing temperature...
You can also see how much my rod of clear bent.
I will post a tutorial of using them in an aquarium marble, and if possible making a simple murrini as well once my clear arrives.
Murrini are a great way to add detail to beads, and fire polishing can make them that much easier to use.
In all honesty, I almost never fire polish my murrini, but if it helps, why not?
Kiln Fire Polishing Murrini Tutorial
