This shows some very simple murrini I made. It's something I want to do more of and learn more advanced methods. There are some glass artists in Italy who ONLY make murrini.Theirs will show detailed scenes, faces, animals, and butterflies.

Here's how they are made.. many layers of encasing with transparent and opaque colors, slowly building up the design. Then the bundle is heated until soupy soft and slowly pulled to a length. When cool it is cut with glass cutters into thin slices, it is the cross section you see applied to the bead. Those little murrini slices in the white spoon are about 3.5mm in diameter .

Trying out new possibilities in glass is intriguing. The element of chance is the excitement, the open-ended "what ifs" are compelling. I have been making my own simple murrini slices to add to my beads. Now I've started to buy complex murrini made by steadier hands and am having fun trying out different ways to use them. Here they are floating surface design elements and then they are flower faces growing in a garden.