In some of my Fused Glass work you may see the words Millefiori or Murrine and you may not know what they are so I thought I’d write a blog about both.
The Millefiori is an ancient technique (first appeared in the Mideast more than 4,000 years ago) and was revived in Venice in the sixteenth century and in France and England in the nineteenth century. Millefiori in Italian stand for a thousand flowers (“mille” [thousand] and “fiori” [flowers]. Millefiori is a glass technique, which produces decorative patterns in the glass.
The millefiori technique involves producing canes or rods known as murrine (common pluralization murrini). The rod/cane with multicolored patterns (murrine) is cut from the end. Murrine can be made in infinite designs. Murrine are designed by layering different colors of molten glass around a core, then heating and stretching it into a rod. When cool, the rod is sliced into cross-sections of desired thickness with each slice possessing the same pattern in cross-section.
Luckily, for me I just buy the cut millefiori or murrine then I fuse them the way I want as earrings, pendants, tie tacks, bracelet, etc. I consider the millefiori as the flower style and murrini and the other styles. I have several types of flowers but my favorites are the various types of murrini including aliens, ladybugs, hearts, smiley faces, dolphin, fish, whale, doggy paws, etc. What are really fun are my Halloween murrini including spiders, skulls, mummies, bats, etc. I took some quick pictures of my most recent Millefiori & Murrini that still need findings (bails, earrings, tie tack etc) before I put them on my actual sites. If you would like me to turn one into something special for you just email me.
I can also make larger fused glass pendants that incorporate several millefiori/murrini. Moreover, I can add the millefiori as an accent. If you like fun fused glass and would like me to make a fused glass millefiori or murrine for you then let me know.
Don’t forget to check out all my sites, Fused Glass by Karen, My Etsy store, my Art fire Store, my Pinterest, and my YouTube Channel.
Karen
