April 18, 2025 • When life gives you lemons....
Happy Good Friday. A special day indeed. Let me wish you Happy Easter in advance and hope your weekend is filled with love.
I've never been a big fan of the saying "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!". I'm not sure why...maybe just because it seemed to be used a lot (and on everything). But this week not only do I have lemons and lemonade, it didn't go as planned and the saying ironically fit my week. More to come on this and the project below, which is the most recent addition to my Dragonfly and Jar series.
Housekeeping notes:
All my murrini are COE 96 and these cuties will go on sale tomorrow, Saturday, April 19, at Noon Central Time. Everything was created with Oceanside fusible glass. I worked with Joni from Aggie Glass Designs this week and she made matching dots and pulled Olive stringer in case you wanted to make this, or a similar project and didn’t have all the colors.
This week's Murrini:
Golden Dragonfly Kits (Opal and Transparent)
These colorful Dragonflies are available this week in Opal and Transparent. Both are bold and stunning. Sizes of wings will range from small to large. Each kit will have 4 wings, 1 body and 2 black tail murrini. The black tail should be snipped down into thin discs (more like a hockey puck in appearance) so they sit nice and flat.
The above photo shows the approximate sizes of small, medium and large wings.
Just in case you are new to Dragonflies, here is a video I created last year to show you how to get 16 equal snips from each cane. NOTE: there will only be TWO small black tail canes in each package this time. Tails need to be snipped more like a thin “hockey puck” so they lay flat and won’t tip over. (The video says you will get three, but you’ll get plenty of tail pieces from just two black canes).
The Dragonflies are best at a light tack fuse so as to keep their beautiful exterior design intact.
NEW! Lemon Segments
These new lemon segments are a simple murrini but oh-so-fun! You may notice that some of these segments have a very thin layer of white around the exterior, but most do not.
I first experimented with the segments on a round white circle grouped with a slight gap between each murrini, but when fully fused they all came together more like a flower (far left sample which was still nice but not what I was going for).
So in my next attempt (middle lemon) I put the segments back on white with a bit of Glasstac glue holding them still and cut a yellow circle slightly larger than the white circle to place underneath the white circle. I filled all around the lemon segments (once the glue dried) with fine white frit and fully fused (my favorite).
Finally I tried another method using white powder between the segments, but this made the segments look a bit softer around the edges (far right lemon sample). I also should have fully fused the third sample a bit hotter as the yellow didn’t quite pull in all the way and there is a ledge between the white and the yellow.
Since the sizes of Lemon Segment canes differ, there is no set size on how to make your white and yellow circles. What I recommend is after you have your segments snipped, set them on your white base positioned with some space between each segment and draw a circle around the segments with about a 1/8 to 3/16 space all around, depending on how much white and yellow you want around your segments. If you want a little bit more yellow to show, make it slightly larger (closer to 3/16). You can see I sprinkled in a little bit of white fine frit all around the segments and before putting it in the kiln, I scooted the frit on the yellow up against the white edge.
The larger Lemon Segment canes are a bit trickier to snip so I made a quick video to show how I got the best result when snipping the MEDIUM and LARGE size. For the med/large size, I will be charging just a bit less than the actual weight of the package so that everyone can have a practice cane in each order. ;) The smaller sizes snip easier, and I snipped them the same way as in the video.
Sunflower Flat-end Petals
Sunflower Flat-end Petals are back! The colors go perfectly with this week’s Dragonfly. They are best at a tack fuse when placed around a center dot.
NEW! Transparent Sunflower Flat-end Petals
New this week are transparent Sunflower Flat-end Petals! They fused beautifully colorful with a yellow petal and orange highlight. Keep in mind that because they are transparent, the background color you choose with affect their color. I chose to put them around a transparent orange dot in this week’s project so the center flowed right into the petals. Most of these petals are in the medium to larger range. I also have some very small ones that will be sold in a mixed package that are more in the tiny/small range.
Lemons
Lemon murrini are also back!! They are a bit persnickety to create, so I don’t make them often, but they sure are fun to fuse with. The are definitely best at a light tack fuse so they remain as-is.
Fancy Yellow Flat-end Daisy Petal
These flat-end daisy petals are this week’s surprising outcome. I have yellow opal on the tips and a medium amber in the lower half of the flat-end. They were cool when I looked at them after pulling, but once they were around a yellow dot they really jumped out! Joni made matching dots just in case you don’t have these colors in Oceanside glass.
Orange Oval Flat-end Petals
I haven’t made any oval flat-end petals recently, so I chose to use all the yellows and oranges (opal and transparent) this week to create a petal with a transitioning center. With these petals, you will have lots of wonderful options of color for the center dot. For the most part, these are more in the small/medium size range.
Olive Slender Leaves
Olive was my “green of choice” this week to go so beautifully with the oranges and yellows. These slender leaves also make a fun spiky flower, too! Sizes of leaves will vary in each order.
Olive Oak Leaves
I’ve made this shape of leaf before, but I don’t think I’ve ever used Olive green. They are really pretty and a bit on the larger side. You won’t want to try to snip them too thin as the design isn’t real conducive to a thinner snip, but 3mm is a good target width. Tack fuse to keep the frilly outside intact.
SECONDS Lemons
Yup, I made a pot of lemons that decided to go off-center. So I’ll be selling them at a discount. They are still very pretty but didn’t quite pass my quality control standards. There also may be a few that are slightly before or after the best section of the pull and have either a very thin layer of white on the outside or a more white around the lemon segments as you see here.
SECONDS Sunflower Flat-end Petals
I do have quite a few SECONDS Sunflower petals as well. As you can see, some have tiny pinholes and toward the end of the pull the little orange center decided he didn’t want to stay in the center! Ha!
This week's murrini fully fused and tack fused
The above photo shows each design fully fused and tack fused. As you can see, this week's murrini are created to be tack fused so they retain their outer shape.
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This week's project:
Oof. Ok...here we go. I had my first version of this project to break. Yep...not only the big 12X12 piece broke, but a piece of my heart broke, too. I know what I did wrong...so lesson learned. If there was any lemonade to be made out of my lemons here, it was the fact that I did a few things differently the second time that worked out well and saved a step! There are several steps to the project and some of the elements are fun just "as-is".
I started out by dusting my 12X12 orange bottom with clear powder to reduce the chance of bubbles in the full fuse.
Next I placed my Ivory glass, cut just slightly smaller than the orange piece, and sprinkled it with my decorative frit. I had sketched out an idea on the glass with a sharpie and placed Olive green stringer where I knew the stems of the flowers would be coming across. I wanted them to fully fuse into the background just in case you could see through the glass.
Next I got started on my glass of lemonade. I took a 5mm clear piece of glass and sprinkled it with a bit of clear powder (left) and then placed a previously made lemon upside down over the top of the powder. I fully fused it and when flipped over it looks like a lemon behind the glass! Also if you notice some test areas at the top...I wasn't sure what mix of frit I was going to use for my lemonade, so I did some samples. I'm glad I did! Yikes!
I decided I wanted another piece of lemon in the glass, but due to the curved nature of the pre-fused lemon, I didn’t want the “lemonade” to go underneath the edge of the lemon. So I put a teeny drop of superglue down and placed my half lemon down. After it was secure I slid some CLEAR powder underneath the lemon (upper left) and then cleaned it up (more than what is shown here) so that the clear was only under the edge of the lemon. Next I sprinkled my lemonade over the glass which was a 50/50 mix of white and yellow fine frit. After another full fuse you can see the fun result in the photo on the right.
Now that all my pre-fused pieces were ready, I drew off the glass with a sharpie and took it to my Taurus saw so I didn’t accidentally make a bad break. I snipped all my murrini down and got an idea of my layout. Don't forget that if you are new to the way I put together the Dragonflies, there is a short video above.
After all the pieces were in place I texted a few people with this photo and asked if I should have the lemon on the glass or not. It was an overwhelming yes. This was the beginning of the end of this project. I put it in for a full fuse...what I thought was my slower program which was 50 degrees per hour ramp with a 6 hour anneal. I knew it would be in there for a few days. This was on a Saturday. After church on Sunday I went into the shop to putter around and realized the project was almost done! It SHOULD have still been annealing. I then realized I had the ramp at 150 degrees per hour. I held my breath.
Out of the kiln I jumped for joy. This was one of my favorite pieces OF ALL TIME! But then…
The next day I see this. A tiny fracture starting at the top of the glass where it met the inside of the half lemon. 150 wasn’t slow enough for the differences in height where these two 6mm pieces came together. Parts of the lemon cutout were touching the glass and parts of it were not creating a dandy thermal shock environment. I told my husband, “See this?” He said, “What is that?” I said, “...Death”. The next day when I picked it up, the entire corner of the project came off into my hand. Not a good day. Lesson learned. My friend Carol and I were chatting about ramp speeds the other day and we were talking about Dennis Brady’s great advice he shares concerning fusing schedules with uneven heights on his Glass Campus page. He was spot on when he said “The turtle wins the race”. Yes indeed...and double check your programs.
This time to avoid the potential problem of any kind of thermal shock between those to very thick pieces snuggled together, but not fitting perfectly, I opted to leave off the lemon, even with my slower ramp speeds. The one thing that I did differently here is I didn't fuse my lemons onto the clear glass and then do a second firing with the "lemonade" over the top of it. I did it all at once and put the clear powder all around the pre-fused lemon to keep any lemonade frit from slipping underneath (like I showed above with the half lemon in the glass). It caught a few bubbles, but I kind of liked that look! I also had my stems going to the very edge of the project and I loved that.
So...even through a stressful week, I ended up with lemonade after all. I made just a glass of lemonade for my mom and she has it sitting on her living room table in a little easel. I also made some lemons as refrigerator magnets and they are adorable. So some of the elements of this project can be their own little project.
Have fun!
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Hints on the Horizon: May 3 I'm going to have lots of requested favorites! 
I'll be taking advantage of the 5th Saturday in May and I'm going to close my shop for some Family Time. However, that won't interfere with my normal schedule and each month I'll still have new murrini on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays!! I have lots of fun things planned. Stay tuned!
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Helpful Links:
If you use COE 90, be sure to shop Lori’s beautiful murrini and mille options found at Wilderness Glass.
Oceanside's recommended Firing Schedules.
If you are looking for COE 96 stringer or pre-fused dots, Joni pulls matching stringer for the items I have each week. Find her beautiful work at Aggie Glass Designs.
For beautiful COE 96 Twisties, check out Sherry's lovley work at Love•Peace•Create•Shop.
If you are looking for Mike LaChance’s fusible COE 96 handcrafted Bails, find his unique work at Mike’s Innovative Glass.
For beautiful COE96 frit blends, check out Val Cox's website.
My favorite flattening technique is from a tutorial by Nancy Sala. It’s worth the $8 for the excellent tips she gives. Once purchased and she sees your order, she will email you the tutorial in a PDF.