Borosilicate Murrine

 

Murrine production first appeared in the Middle East more than 4,000 years ago and was revived by Venetian glass makers on Murano in the early 16th century.

Fast forward a few thousand years and the technique I’m using is a little different, but the concept remains the same.

Stringer stacks start with, You guessed it! Pulling stringers. Each image contains roughly 3lbs of glass stringers.

stringers start life as 7mm rods of color (as they come from the maker) That is then pulled down by hand to a size of roughly .4-.8mm depending on the level of detail you’re going for (fineline or fill) 

The image is then stacked in a tube stringer by stringer (pixel by pixel) Creating the image.

Once the image is done and ready to be pulled, it gets put in a tube and a vacuum applied to remove the air as it’s heated up and pulled down to size. (Usually between 7 and 20mm depending on what its to be used for)

Once murrine have been made, they can be incorporated into a glass vessel or sculpture, or bong, or pendant, or just kept as a keepsake.

most of my murrine are original artworks designed by me, to reflect the whimsy of the Pacific Northwest, and my own life experiences. there are a couple colabs listed here as well!