I cannot blame the lovely Mr Loren Stump COMPLETELY for my murrini obsession, although he does bear a great measure of responsibility for the improvement in them thats for sure. Every once in a while I go through my murrini stash and come across some of the early first ones.... usually this makes me scrunch up with some shame and think that I should hide them somewhere they can't be seen by the general public, but not yesterday.
I often participate in the monthly bead challenge run by the gorgeous Jan Cahill (http://www.jancbeads.net/ ) on our local glass bead makers forum here in Australia (http://www.glassbeadmakers.net/forum/index.php ) and this months challenge is Fantasy!
I had made up my half of a dragonfly cane,was quite happy with that and was in the mood to try a bead or two for the challenge. I decided that if I cut some thin slices of the dragonfly wing components off the dodgy end of the pull they might make a cool fairies wing (possibly cooler if they didn't have black outlines). So I threw a couple in the kiln and made a bead.
The process I use when just sort of playing with this type of bead is a bit .....er.... painful you could say. Because I sort of want it to grow as I go along there is no pre-planning (apart from the wing component) and I end up scrambling around looking for bits and pieces with a hot bead waving around like a mad woman. I decided that I would try some enamel on the bottom of a fairy simple tab bead which once I had made that base decided I wanted some simple murrini flowers on there....... MAD crazy-arsed dash to the box of floral murrini to find the old simple ones I made a couple of years ago. Once I got them onto the bead I decided I wanted a full fairy and now needed some ivory stringer... juggling of the mandrel and the rod in the same hand ensued.... once done I wanted a component cane in purple for the dress.... more juggling and swearing... I am sure you get the picture!
When I put legs and arms and a body with a dress onto the bead, I realised this fairy needs a face of a certain size.... Going through my randoms box of murrini in one hand whilst try to keep the bead warm in the other must have looked odd, but finally I did find a bag of small faces (from a time when I pulled everything too small). The very FIRST face cane I had ever made, complete with non-matching sized eyes and a too small mouth.... I had got to the point where I no longer cared which face, just any face will do so I grabbed one of the murrini I NEVER use and usually hide. Surprisingly the size was just right and once I had thrown on a shock of hair she looked quite good. I popped on one of the dragonfly wing slices and sort of wrapped it around the bead, because it was really too big, but I was really over the drama by now and just wanted to finish up I went ahead. I also decided that since this bead was going to look really bad anyway I might as well try out a small slice of the 2011 signature cane and see how well it applies next to my signature monkey face..... quite well as it turns out!
Here's the results. I think this bead is an example of two wrongs can actually turn out ok.... not perfect, but definitely OK!! She is rough there is no doubt about it, but it is a good start for some new ideas.... one of which means I really do need to pull the wing cane bodgy end down a bit smaller!
I often participate in the monthly bead challenge run by the gorgeous Jan Cahill (http://www.jancbeads.net/ ) on our local glass bead makers forum here in Australia (http://www.glassbeadmakers.net/forum/index.php ) and this months challenge is Fantasy!
I had made up my half of a dragonfly cane,was quite happy with that and was in the mood to try a bead or two for the challenge. I decided that if I cut some thin slices of the dragonfly wing components off the dodgy end of the pull they might make a cool fairies wing (possibly cooler if they didn't have black outlines). So I threw a couple in the kiln and made a bead.
The process I use when just sort of playing with this type of bead is a bit .....er.... painful you could say. Because I sort of want it to grow as I go along there is no pre-planning (apart from the wing component) and I end up scrambling around looking for bits and pieces with a hot bead waving around like a mad woman. I decided that I would try some enamel on the bottom of a fairy simple tab bead which once I had made that base decided I wanted some simple murrini flowers on there....... MAD crazy-arsed dash to the box of floral murrini to find the old simple ones I made a couple of years ago. Once I got them onto the bead I decided I wanted a full fairy and now needed some ivory stringer... juggling of the mandrel and the rod in the same hand ensued.... once done I wanted a component cane in purple for the dress.... more juggling and swearing... I am sure you get the picture!
When I put legs and arms and a body with a dress onto the bead, I realised this fairy needs a face of a certain size.... Going through my randoms box of murrini in one hand whilst try to keep the bead warm in the other must have looked odd, but finally I did find a bag of small faces (from a time when I pulled everything too small). The very FIRST face cane I had ever made, complete with non-matching sized eyes and a too small mouth.... I had got to the point where I no longer cared which face, just any face will do so I grabbed one of the murrini I NEVER use and usually hide. Surprisingly the size was just right and once I had thrown on a shock of hair she looked quite good. I popped on one of the dragonfly wing slices and sort of wrapped it around the bead, because it was really too big, but I was really over the drama by now and just wanted to finish up I went ahead. I also decided that since this bead was going to look really bad anyway I might as well try out a small slice of the 2011 signature cane and see how well it applies next to my signature monkey face..... quite well as it turns out!
Here's the results. I think this bead is an example of two wrongs can actually turn out ok.... not perfect, but definitely OK!! She is rough there is no doubt about it, but it is a good start for some new ideas.... one of which means I really do need to pull the wing cane bodgy end down a bit smaller!
No comments:
Post a Comment