Murrini, Russ and Backyard Mud

I've finally made a decent murrini, Folks! I've tried before but most of them came out mushy. At Flame of Mind, I finally made a half way decent one and consider this one my first real murrini:


Not bad for a rookie, huh? Russ seems to approve. (Who is Russ? Check out the Rings n Things blog)



Not satisfied, I wanted to build a complex murrini. Beau built a "on the fly" warming plate out of fire brick and a kiln shelf and away I went. I cut four of the above murrini and created a core. I melted the four pieces into the core and pulled:



The side murrini melted in and became oblong. I didn't have enough of the first murrini to go all the way around the core - I was going for technique. Not too bad for my very first complex murrini.

Russ hasn't weighed in on the complex murrini yet but I haven't heard any complaints!

We've had our backyard dug up for about a month. We spent $10K having a new septic system put in. It's done just in time for The Teen's end of the year pool party. This is the state of our backyard right now:




Potential mud just waiting to happen. Put a few teens in the pool splashing and throwing each other into the pool and you've got mud.

But we've got a hose. They can have mud and then it's the waterhose to clean them off.

I think Russ would approve, don't you?

Gotta Make Ma Own Murrini

Fooling around with millifiori a few years back, I created this pendant for a fundraiser giveaway. It's done in the traditional Italian style but this was fused between two layers of clear glass. The look is one that I love. I've been thinking about how to stretch this look into a modern style, i.e., more my style. I'm not completely modern in my look but I'm spare in my application of technique and color. I like to put in a few things and let those speak for themselves.

Guess it's time to get back to makin' ma own murrini!

What part of your artwork do you make from scratch?