That Darn Blue Feather

This month's theme for the Art Bead Scene is The Blue Feather. Yes, it's another abstract piece and I don't do well with those. In fact, I'm so relieved it was called the blue feather because I would have NEVER gotten that otherwise.

I've Got Friends...

It just so happens I had been reading up on how to make a feather murrini. My buddy Janel Dudley is working on a tutorial for sale using murrini and asked me to proof / make suggestions. And... I SO don't do murrini. I look at them and go "Oh, those are nice...but what would I DO with them??" But that Janel - what a wonderful  and sneaky friend she is - sent me some murrini and some glass to actually try her tut out on the torch. And I LOVED it!

So that got me curious about obsessed with murrini. And while I didn't feel capable of pulling murrini as elaborate and stunning as Janel's, I wanted to try and pull something simple and since a feather is just stacked layers - about 16  layers - of glass, I thought I could give that a try.

The Blob!

My first attempt ended in frustration. It didn't look like a feather so much as a blob of glass! After I made a bead with it I realized it was a mistake to try and get gradient color in the feather.

My second pull didn't seem to look any different except there was this wonky part that I thought didn't get hot enough. After re-reading the feather tut, I realized that wonky bit was the IDEAL shape for feather murrini.  And after taking this picture, I realized they are all the right shape...I just pulled them too thin.

Color Me Blind....


So I tried applying it to a bead. I didn't really like this one... the colors between the bead and the feather are too similar. The feather just disappears. I also decided leave the flowers raised.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

So my final attempt, I went with a different background color. I used transparent lapis over a white heart. I also used a bit of brown to rake the murrina. And can I digress a bit to kvetch about digital cameras and the color BLUE??? WHY the heck doesn't that color photograph properly???  The bead in the photo below is THIS COLOR...not the crappy blue on the screen. This fact of digital bugs the crap out of me to the point I've got a GORGEOUS blue bead that's been on my desk for months and I won't list it for sale because I hate every picture I see of it!

[Stepping down off my soapbox] This is the bead I hope to use in my ABS entry... if the jewelry muse hits me over the head in time to enter!