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01.

Pattern Bar

This tiny pattern bar is my first attempt at faux murrine. I used 3mm thick, 1/4″ wide strips of French Vanilla sheet glass surrounding Turquoise Blue 2mm stringer. I’ve dammed it and put ceramic fiber paper between glass and dam. Below you can see the fused end product. It’s flattened out, as expected, but the color combination is pretty pleasing. This faux murrine will form one of the pendants.

French Vanilla Strips Around Turquoise Blue Stringer
Faux Murrini
02.

Custom Frit

I had some stringer left over from other projects (the Blue Bubble Plate, 2mm Stringer Bowl, and the 5mm Stringer Bowl) and decided to make my own multicolor frit. I used tile nippers to chip the small pieces, then stirred in GlasTac Gel to hold them together.

Custom Frit from Stringer Bits
03.

Frit Sandwich

Because I wasn’t sure how the frit would spread, I used a 1 x 1 inch, 2mm thick, piece of clear Tekta glass on top, and two similar pieces on the bottom, to create the necessary 6mm overall thickness, not taking into account the frit.

Frit Sandwich
04.

Where There’s Space

All of these pendants were fired when there was spare shelf space along with larger projects. As you can see if you click and zoom in, they’re all sandwiched between clear glass.

Ready to Fuse
05.

Fused Glass Cabachons

These are the cabachons that were capped with clear glass and thus fused into nice shapes.

Fused Cabachons
06.

Cold Working

Using diamond hand lap pads, I worked the edges of the frit and faux murrine pendants, giving them a smooth matte finish all around.

Cold Worked
07.

Orange Murrine Pendants

The orange murrine pendants (the photo only shows one) were not cold worked and are glossy all around.

Finished Orange Murrini
08.

Vanilla and Turquoise

Like the custom frit pendants, the vanilla and turquoise pendant also has a smooth matte finish on its edge.

Finished Vanilla and Turquoise
09.

Last One

Just for the sake of completeness, here’s a close-up of one of the frit pendants.

Upload Custom Frit
Results

Final Result

I’m surprised at how much I enjoy making fused glass jewelry. Originally it seemed too small and fussy. Add to that, I’m not really a jewelry person. But there’s something fascinating about the small patterns and mix of colors that might be too busy for larger work. Jewelry definitely earns a place in the kiln.

End Result
All the  Pendants

FULL FUSING SCHEDULE FOR FAUX MURRINI (RUN TIME 10:31)*

SEGMENT RATE (deg F / hour) TEMPERATURE (F) HOLD (hours:minutes)
1 350 1225 :45
2 600 1500 :30
3 AFAP 900 2:00
4 100 700 OFF

* The firing schedules may be designed for other projects that were fired with this one. Everything was fired in a Paragon GL-22AD.