...Starburst Murrini
Spot heat on the bead where you want the murrini to go and have the murrini at the ready held in some tweezers. Make sure you leave a bit of murrini sticking out from the ends of the tweezers otherwise your tweezers may get stuck on the base bead when you attach. When your base bead is glowing, quickly waft the murrini in the top of the flame to warm slightly. Bring both the murrini and bead out of the flame and attach. Slowly melt the murrini down in to the base bead. You will be able to see the stripes on the edge of your murrini coming together towards the middle to form a starburst. Melt the entire murrini in to the base bead without pressing or leave partially raised, allow to cool and then cover with it clear glass. Be careful not to let the base bead get too hot as it will begin to flow and distort your murrini.
This takes a bit of practice but the results can be stunning
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...Picture Murrini
Spot heat on the bead where you want the murrini to go and have the murrini at the ready held in some tweezers. Make sure you leave a bit of murrini sticking out from the ends of the tweezers otherwise your tweezers may get stuck on the base bead when you attach. When your base bead is glowing, quickly waft the murrini in the top of the flame to warm slightly. Bring both the murrini and bead out of the flame and attach. Hold the bead in the top of the flame whilst you heat some clear glass. Dab a small amount of clear on top of the murrini to keep the pattern from closing up when it is heated. Slowly melt the murrini down in to the base bead. You may want to help the process along by flattening the murrini gently when it is soft. If you press down at an angle the pattern on your murrini will become distorted. another method is to melt the entire murrini in to the base bead without pressing it at all which will make the pattern spread out further on the surface of the bead. Be careful not to let the base bead get too hot as it will begin to flow and distort your murrini.
This takes a bit of practice but the results can be stunning
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...Shards
Have your base bead ready and then pick up your shard with long tweezers. Heat your bead and a small area of your shard in the flame and then touch the heated areas together outside of the flame to attach them. Next use the radial heat next to the flame (or work in the cooler tip of the flame) to "soften" the rest of the shard and then push it down flat on to your bead surface with tweezers or a marver. Do not heat the shard of blown glass directly in the flame as it will simply "ball up". Once the shard is firmly attached you can then choose to melt your shard in flush or leave it as raised decoration in your bead design.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...Shardfetti
Tip a small amount of shardfetti on to your heat proof work surface or marver. Space out the small pieces. Heat your base bead and roll it in the shardfetti then continue to heat, shape and roll your bead in shardfetti until you are satisfied with the result.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------