Murano, Murrini, Millefiori and Other Glass Confusion

Fish with murrini eyes and decorative murrini accents

Today, when I was getting ready for a bit of torch fun, I threw out this sentence~ 'I'm just going to make a few murrini.' The response? 'I thought you had to go to Italy to do that.' Hmmm, and this from someone who has slogged through many years of listening to me talk about glass, glass and more glass. I'm sure a lot of folks are confused by glass terms because, well, a lot of them sound similar. And what's with all the Italian words?! So I'm here to, hopefully, make a little of it make sense.

Follow this link to find out more about the language of lampwork.

Murano~ Many of you are familiar with 'Murano Glass'. Murano glass is simply glass that is made by traditional methods on the island of Murano in Italy. But... The supplies for most of the beads I make are made on that same island. Some companies will call their glass Murano glass because the raw materials for the items are made in Murano. There are actually strict rules about what should labeled Murano glass ~ find more information about that here.

Making the cane

Heating the glass to stretch it

The canes before being cut

Murrini~ A slice of composite cane which creates a pattern in cross section. Lino Tagliapietra gives a thorough explanation on his website. There are a number of different ways to make this cane, both over a torch and in the kiln. Glass is layered into a large barrel shape, which creates a pattern within. The cane is then heated and stretched into a thinner rod, which reveals a pattern in cross section when it is sliced after it has cooled. These slices or chips are then applied to hot glass in a number of different ways. They can be applied on the surface or encased with clear glass; melted flat to the larger glass piece or left as bumps on the glass. Nearly any pattern can be made using this technique, as shown by Loren Stump. Find more information here. My own murrini are pretty simple. I've still got a lot to learn in that department!


Millefiori~ Italian for 'thousand flowers', millefiori is a lot of murrini laid up right next to each other, often covering an entire glass piece or an area of a piece. I personally expect the murrini in a piece referred to as millefiori to be patterned in a way that looks like flowers. Otherwise, I would refer to the glass piece as having a 'mosaic' design., which is what these patterns were called prior to about 1849.

Moretti~ A type of soft glass commonly used in glass beadmaking which is made by the Effetre company on the island of Murano.

Here's a wee bit more about my own murrini use.

Lampwork Masked Bead Tutorial From Isinglass Design

Here is an example of how to make one style of  masked beads in photos, taken from my ebook 'Reflections: the Diary of a Glass Beadmaker.' Complete instructions for these, two other masked beads styles and many other lampwork glass beads are in the book, available on etsy.






 

Black base bead

Aqua dots

Black dots overlapping aqua

Black Dots Top & Bottom

Black dots between

Melt it all in evenly

Melt everything together, fin~

Aqua dots as shown

Here are a couple of other masking designs that are covered in the book.

Drawing the Line~ Glass Stringer Control for Beginners

Well, I recently purchased a pair of amazing glass beads with musical notes on a staff from Heather Behrendt. The stringer work on them was so precise and tiny I could hardly believe my eyes. Needless to say, I started thinking that it was maybe just slightly possible that I could begin to learn to draw a few lines on some beads. I know the theory, of course~ pull very fine stringer, find sweet spot in flame, apply to bead. Sounds easy, yes?  Oh! I forgot something~ p,p,p (practice, practice, practice, in case you had something else in mind).

I tried a wee bit of this out yesterday, and here are a few conclusions, ideas and points of interest. Firstly, if you are just scribbling stringer randomly around a bead, you can heat up a pea-sized bit of glass on the end of a rod to a nice red glow, pull it out of the flame, attach it to the bead and run it quickly around the bead by either turning the bead around or moving the blob about. This is what I call a 'glass blowers style' application as was used in this bead. Not a teeny tiny line, but quite easy to do, and no need to pull stringer in advance as you are using a blob of glass instead of a thin bit.


But anyone can do that, right? Time to move on to something a bit more difficult. The next bead was made using a commercial thin stringer. Thinner than a regular commercial stringer, but still not really thin, so the lines still ended up thick-ish. I tried out a couple of parallel lines and then a couple intersecting lines. Here's where the sweet spot in the flame came into play. I have often heard that you can work to the side of the flame, using the heat of the bead to heat the stringer. Seems I was working more in front of the flame. I don't think it really matters, as long as the bead is hot enough to make the stringer stick. The stringer should be applied by pushing it onto the bead, not just laying it down onto the bead, or it will not adhere properly. If that happens, it will pull off of the bead and ball up, giving you dots instead of lines. In this case, I added some dots at the intersections of the lines to help hide any blobby bits there.

Now on to the harder stuff! For this bead, the first step was pulling some thin stringer. I have not gotten to the hair-thin phase, but it's pretty thin! I decided to try some colors other than black just for fun. The main tip here is- PAY ATTENTION! Hold the stringer near the end so it doesn't wobble while you apply it, but be sure there is enough sticking out to make the entire swipe onto the bead at once. Be sure the tip of your stinger is not blobbly (cut it off if it is), heat the bead, put it in position out of the flame, but still close (your sweet spot) and apply the stringer by pushing it onto the bead. Wow, do I have shaky hands! You can see I used a lot of dots here and there to hide ends and wobbly bits. I had to figure out how to make that a design element! Oh, but now I've given it away... I do like the look of the different stringer colors~ helps with the retro look! And you can see that is is very different on each side. Why the heck not?!

I will have to let you know if the p,p,p works out, or if I just end up peeved, peeved, peeved!

Form Follows Function

Looking around on facebook, I saw a wonderful thread with many lampworking tips and it got me thinking about one little lampworking detail that I think about a lot which is the first step in many bead style decisions, and that is- 'how will this bead hang?' I make a LOT of fish, so that's where I'll start.

If the fish has a vertical hole (as most of mine do), the front and back end need to be fairly well balanced. That means the front end of the basic body will be a little bit longer than the back end. Why? Because the back will have the fins and the tail added which, though thin, will add some weight. The side fins do not extend much past the hole, adding a little more weight to the front. Hopefully in the end it will all work out! One more thing; ever since my wind disaster, I have made my fish with the side fins against the body rather than sticking out to the sides. Much less fragile!

A horizontal hole on a fish is a bit more difficult for me. The bottom of the fish needs to be heavier than the top, so I mash it a bit unevenly and then try to extend the bottom a little more. Sometimes later in the process, when it's time to add the eyes, I can't remember or really see which is the top and which is the bottom. Today, I added a wee dot of clear at the top where I was planning to put the eyes. Problem solved~ now I wouldn't get mixed up later, and the clear does not mess with the design; I can just melt it and cover it up later. (thanks to Elizabeth Dauch for this tip)

Another new design change for those horizontal fish has made them work out so much better in my mind. No more worries about the tail being too fragile- it is now just another part of the bead.

One more thing- you might call this a pet peeve, I suppose. Both sides of any bead I make have a design on them. Why? Because they can flip over or be put on backwards and I feel they should still be nice to look at. Any time I put up a bead for sale anywhere online, I show both sides, and maybe even a side view.

There you have it~ one little step in the design of the bead that can be quite important. Or so I believe...

'Hot Glass for Cool Kids' Tutorial Ebook for Beads of Courage

Have you heard? The Soda Lime Times has just finished publication of a new ebook filled with fun lampwork glass bead tutorials called Hot Glass for Cool Kids. The tutorials were all written with the kids from Beads of Courage in mind, and ALL money from purchases of the book go directly to Beads of Courage. By virtue of my last name, the tutorial I donated is the very first one in the book (thanks Dad!). I also had the honor of being able to name the book- a bunch of possible titles were submitted, and the one I came up with got the most votes- a fluke to be sure, but Diane Woodall generously sent me a bunch of wonderful prizes for being the winner.

The bead at the left is the one I donated a tut for- encased silver with a special technique for some cool organic designs that can be used in a lot of different ways. The bead at the right uses the same technique over an enameled background.
 
Get your copy right here, right now! There are 20, count 'em 20 wonderful new things for you to try out and make for Beads of Courage, your friends, family or yourself! Here's a photo of the cover showing all of the tutorial beads- pretty cool!

The Taming of EDP- A Lampworker's Secret

How many of you love edp (evil divitrifying purple)? Show of hands... How many of you hate it? Wait! Those are the same people. Well, I used to feel the same way... The color is beautiful, but it tends to just sit on the sidelines and watch me pass it by over and over again- the wall-flower of my studio.

The other day I was feeling adventurous and pulled a rod out  - oh, what the heck- why not. I made a portal bead base, rolled it in a bit of white enamel, and started adding some edp and other colors. And guess what? No devit- a practical miracle. OK, I'm thinking, maybe I just didn't notice it- maybe it will come out of the kiln looking ug-ly. But I'm just gonna try that again and see. So I did. And guess what- no devit again.

OK, I'm thinking, I must just be holding my mouth right today. We'll see what happens when I do this tomorrow.

And my un-scientific assessment of the situation is this. If you roll a bead in white enamel and apply the edp, you get rid of both the 'e' and the 'd' and end up with just the lovely purple you always wanted. There is a bit of edp in all of the beads pictured. I was having some other troubles with the tube, and managed to reduce some of the purple in that bead. The edp ended up a bit washed out looking in that bead as well, so there may be other odd things going on that I haven't quite figured out yet. I hope y'all will give this a try and let me know how it works for you.

A Lampwork Beadmaking Primer; Getting Started With Hot Glass

From time to time I've had folks ask how they can get started in lampworking, and I've decided it would be smart to just put it all in one place so others can get started on their glass beadmaking obsession. And we're off!

The very most important thing in learning to make glass beads is practice time. A good class at your local Art Center, Glass Shop, or from a beadmaker in your area is a great place to get the ball rolling.
You can join the International Society of Glass Beadmakers to learn about what's happening in your area, get their new magazine Glass Bead Evolution, join in the forum, and meet up with other beadmakers at The Gathering. The instructor listing might just be the perfect place to find that class.
Another excellent place to connect with people on every level in the glass beadmaking community is Lampwork, Etc. It  is chock full of lampworking info-free tutorials, tools for sale, galleries- LE has it all, and so much more! You'll get every opinion possible there.
A nice, inexpensive monthly magazine with some interesting tutorials and information on lots of different levels is The Soda Lime Times. It is now out of print, but back issues are available on her website and in her etsy shop.

You should definitely get a book or two. You can get many of these books through an inter-library loan if you want to take a look before you buy.
Making Glass Beads by Cyndi Jenkins is the book I learned from, and is still a great value for a beadmaking book. If you get a kit, it will likely come with 'you can make glass beads' by the same author- see if you can switch it out, or just take it off as it is just a pamphlet and the book has much more info for about the same price. 
Passing the Flame by Corinna Tettinger is well liked, but a bit pricey. It is nice because it has lots of step-by-step photos. Good thing to look for used.

The Complete Book of Glass Beadmaking by Kimberly Adams is also a good book for learning the basics. 

Beads of Glass by Cindy Jenkins has bead maker bios and step by step instructions to some specific bead styles with some different & interesting techniques.

As far as tools and materials and starter kits- there are a lot of choices. Here are a few I've tried out:
Frantz Art Glass in Washington has a great selection of Moretti glass. They are very helpful and price competitive.
Artistry in Glass in Canada has a wonderful selection of a lot of different brands ( the best overall selection, I think) and decent prices. Check with them for shipping details.
Arrow Springs has a great selection of tools.
Howaco Glass in Michigan is a nice place to get glass because you can order just one rod of something and test it out. Also price competitive.
There are so many suppliers you can use- some of the others that I have not tried are Mountain Glass and  Moretti & More.
Getting proper eye wear is extremely important. All of the vendors I have spoken to over the years have been very helpful, and should be happy to help you make sure you are getting what you need. Most places sell glasses with didydium or Ace lenses, but something else may be recommended if you are using a minor burner or larger torch.

In my opinion, when you are just learning, you don't have to have a kiln immediately. When you have practiced for a while and are thinking about selling, it becomes more important. There are other cooling methods you can use in the beginning like a fiber blanket, vermiculite in a warm crock pot, or annealing bubbles. You need to learn to 'flame anneal' your beads if you are going to go without a kiln, which is just slowly backing them out of the flame until the glow is gone; something you should do anyway (but a kiln makes it less important). The beads can be 'batch annealed' in a kiln later if there is a shop that you can take them to for that.

If the beads are just learning beads and just for you, you can take a bit more of a chance with them. When your beads get larger, or if you want to add things like dichro or silver, you will lose a fairly large percentage of them to breakage without a kiln. The 'inclusions' are the thing that cause the most trouble as they cause the bead to cool differently. My theory is that they insulate the interior while the exterior cools more quickly. I know some people would disagree with me about the whole kiln issue. Now that I have a kiln, I don't know how I lived without it- but I did for quite a while. I dislike batch annealing because I think it can cause problems if done incorrectly, so I pop everything into the kiln as I go now.

Here is a list of the things I think every new lampworker needs to get started on this wonderful journey- kind of a make-your-own kit.
1)  A torch (I'm not gonna tell you what kind- you'll have to research that yourself) and everything that goes with it to get it set up, including a table to attach it to and a way to attach it to your table.
2)  Proper eyewear- see above.
3)  Mandrels- I recommend medium size- 3/32 inch- to start with.
4)  Bead release (sludge)- you can read some of my opinions about that here
5)   A way to cool your beads- kiln, vermiculite or annealing bubbles- see above.
6)  Glass- make sure you have learned about coe and that everything you get is compatible and will work with the torch you've selected.
7)  A good book about glass beadmaking- see above.
8)  Some tools! I recommend a hand held marver, tweezers, scissors (shears), a rake or pick of some kind, a striker to light your torch.
9)  A bead reamer- you can use a manual diamond reamer or an electric reaming tool.
10)  Other good stuff you might just want- a marver that attaches to your torch, a rod rest, a flat or barbeque masher, and any other tools or supplies that just look like too much fun!

So what are you waiting for????

 

Making Shards and Confetti!

CAUTION! This should not be attempted by a novice, minor, or someone without experience with a torch and lampworking. Please use care if you choose to attempt to blow shards. Your safety is your own concern. Do not blow too hard or too quickly as the glass may become thin and dangerous pieces will become airborne. Do not breathe these pieces. If the glass seems to be getting too thin, stop and put it in the metal can. Protect your eyes from breaking glass at all times. Follow all safety rules generally used in lampworking studios.

A fusing pal of mine likes using collage-style glass in some of his designs. You know- the kind with streamers and confetti all over it. The problem is that stuff can be a bit pricey. Since I had tried making glass shards once or twice with decent results, we decided to have a shard-making workshop. We ordered some blow tubes, had a nice stainless steel can at the ready, filled a little jar with some water, put on our safety glasses and went to town. I had looked up some shard-making instructions to refresh my memory.

If you've ever made a hollow bead, you pretty well know the drill. Heat the tube to a nice glow and add a wrap of glass near the end of the tube. Then start wrapping glass on top of that first wrap, making a nice disk and then slowly bending the disk into a globe shape and closing it off. Watch for any holes, close them up, heat the whole thing and then carefully blow out to a thin, but not too thin, thickness. Drop that bubble in the steel can and let it break apart, then clean any remaining glass off the tube by plunging in water if necessary. (One more caution- make sure any tube you are using for this is dry- steam is very hot).

Building a good disk can be a bit of a challenge if you've never done it before, and my friend hadn't. I had some problems with my second disk too. And it was a bit slow- so I started thinking outside the box. Why were we being told to build a hollow globe? What was the need for that when we were going to be blowing a bubble into it anyway. Glassblowers start out with a big molten blob at the end of their blowpipes- why couldn't I do the same thing? And besides, we're blowing shards- it doesn't really matter if they are the same thickness or not.

This morning, I went to the torch and tried out my revised version of shard blowing. I've got a few photos that I hope will help you through this. This was much easier and quicker for me.

1) Heat the end of a 1/4 inch diameter hollow tube to glowing and add a wrap of glass (I used black) about 1/8 inch from the end. Wrap around a couple of times to make a small disk- 1/4 inch high is enough.

step 2

2) Start building a tube onto the front of that disk- parallel to the blow tube. Build it fairly straight out until it is about 3/4 inches long.

step 2-3

3) Close off the end of the glass tube and round up in the flame. You may use a tool to help round up if desired. If there are any holes, close them with a blob of glass.

step 3

   4) You can give a tiny puff of air  into the tube at this point if you like. I don't actually know if this is necessary or not.

step 5

5) Wrap the entire globe with more glass- all the way from top to bottom two or three more times. You can begin adding some more colors if you would like at this point. You should not have any holes as you are adding several layers of glass.




6)  Heat globe and dip into frit if desired. I used raku frit. Give another small puff of air while the blob is hot. After adding air, hold your thumb over the hole for a minute, tilting the tube up slightly while turning.

step 6

7)  Heat, melting everything smooth. Use a tool to shape if needed. 

step 7

Step 8

8) Shape into even globe, making sure it is centered on the blow pipe. Turn the globe around and keep centered, making sure it is evenly heated- the best indicator of this is the color of the glass- it should be the same color all over; a nice glowing orange.

step 9

9)  Heat to a nice, even glow, remove from flame, and blow out carefully. If it collapses, let it melt together, heat and blow again. Rather than holding the tube straight, point it down slightly while blowing (remember, do this out of the flame). For me, one steady blow seemed to work best. Pay attention and don't let one portion blow out too thin and burst. The thin airborne shards this creates are dangerous to breathe. This one did blow out a bit as I was taking the photo.



10)  Carefully put the blown out globe into the steel container. You can tap it carefully inside the container (protecting your eyes), or just put it in the container and it will break on its own.


That's it! You can put the blow tube into water to try and pop off the little bit that may stick, or just heat slowly and build your next shard bubble right onto it.

A Match Made- Well, at the Torch!

This is the finished pair.

Last week I put some pictures up on facebook of pairs of fish I was working on for earrings. I get a little particular when I'm looking for earring pairs. I can take a bit of variance in design, but the size and shape have to be fairly close. So I thought I'd fill y'all in on what I do to attempt to achieve that.

The first part is easy- make a wee fish! First- I count the number of wraps of glass I start the bead with, then take a good look at my starter bead and try to remember the size. I do give it a little bit of a measure against my graphite paddle (for all the good that does me...)
While I'm doing that I attempt to put all the rods down on the table in the order that I used them- so when I go to make the match it should be much easier (except that in the flurry of making the fish, I often make a few mistakes- so I still have to think!).

Here's a picture of some lined up rods. But they were kind of wrong. At least all the colors were there. The next thing is to find a way to measure so I know what I'm aiming for. Need to know both length and height, so I lay it across the graphite paddle again and mark it in my mind.
The first fish goes into the kiln and then I have to put on my thinking cap and cross my fingers.

Hmmm... I made three fish, but I have a bad feeling there is no match there. On to the next trick. Instead of blindly making more, I take the precaution of writing down everything I did just in case I need to try again the next day- which I did. Good luck trying to understand my goofy notes. But it did help. Gave it a read through, brought both of the beads to the torch for comparison, and got to work.

Whew! I think I got it- well close enough for lamp-work!

Lampwork Glass Seahorse Bead Tutorial is Finally Here!

Whew- it's been a hectic few weeks. Lots of things happening, mostly in my mind, I think!
 I was interviewed for the Soda Lime Times this month. The article just came out a couple of days ago- they did a wonderful job! It's chock full of fun information about lampwork beads, beadmakers and tools with several nice tutorials. The April issue is all about beads and the ocean, and there's a lot of eye candy, including some of my fish, mermaids, a turtle and some seahorses.

So what better time to start work on a Seahorse Tutorial? I admit I had really big plans when I started this- why not seahorses and mermaids? I started out with seahorses and realized that I'd better just take it one step at a time. Good thing too, as I barely got it done in time. OK, so I finished it a couple of days after the article, but it was close!

So what, exactly is in this tut? You are taken- with a ton of pictures- through the making of two different seahorses with two different designs in two different orders. Why? Well, I find myself naturally gravitating towards doing it in a particular order, but I don't necessarily think it's the most logical way to do things. So I do it 'my' way the first time, and the 'right' way the second time. Oh, I almost forgot- I made a wee video that shows me doing all the 'hard' parts. And only folks who get the tut have access to the video. It's not a great movie, but I do think it helps.

What's the big deal? To me, there are three things about this tutorial that make it worthwhile.
One- the tail- the way I make the tails was a revelation to me in a lot of ways- how to make the stock as well as how to curl them up.
Two- shaping the mouth- just a little tricky for such a wee part of the creature, but little details can make a big difference.
Three- basic sculptural information- for those who aren't very familiar with sculptural beads, I really tried to explain how and why I do things the way I do them.

One other thing- I had a wonderful tester for this tutorial. Lynne of Islandgirl's Insights did an excellent job of reading, testing, and making suggestions to make this tutorial better. This is the second time she has done this for me- I can't imagine anyone doing a better job. Lynne Rocks!!!!!