April 19, 2024 • Birds, Butterflies, and Blossoms

A great week in the shop making not just murrini, but some fun projects as well. My first project is similar to one I've made before. I love this Italian looking window, so made it again with this week’s flowers. 



I also have birds this week that I wanted to create something frisky with and since Mother’s Day is around the corner, I made the cute scene below for my mom. I wish you could see it in person as the photo doesn’t do it justice.

More on these projects in a moment, but first let’s chat about this week’s murrini. In my survey taken a few weeks ago, someone asked me to talk about what nippers work best on each murrini cane, so I’ll be sure to do that!

Summer Blossom Mix

This beautiful mix is what made me want to re-create the Italian window scene again as these colors spoke to me. The red flower will require wheeled nippers, but the rest snip great with both wheels or the Chipper Nipper. They are also all wonderful tack fused to fully fused. See the fully fused versions below from the front and the back. 1.5+oz for $27.

Sweet Tweet Bird Mix with New Yellow Cardinal

A new murrini buddy flew into the mix this week and added a splash of color! The Yellow Cardinal joins the Red Cardinal, Blue Jay, and Grey Titmouse. These murrini will require wheeled nippers and a LIGHT tack fuse for best results. 1.5+oz for $28.  I also have the fully fused version below so you can see they become birdy blobs. ;)

Blue and White Butterfly Duo

I have one DUO this week for those who need a sampler of both butterflies. Butterflies will require wheeled nippers and I have a tutorial in my TIPS section on how to snip them. The trick is to not try to get them too thin. 3mm is a good target size. 1.5oz for $27.

Singles

Blue Tack Fuse Butterfly (see TIPS section of my website for snipping inst.)

Butterflies wings can be used as a single piece when you need a side view of a butterfly, or put two pieces together at the black like to make a full butterfly. The perfect little touch to your projects. Wheeled nippers required.1.5oz for $27.

White Tack Fuse Butterfly (see TIPS section of my website for snipping inst.)

Butterflies wings can be used as a single piece when you need a side view of a butterfly, or put two pieces together at the black like to make a full butterfly. The perfect little touch. Wheeled nippers required.1.5oz for $27.

Lady Bugs

This week the Lady Bugs are all similar in size. Perfect tack to contour fused, but in a full fuse they get a bit wonky in shape since they are not surrounded by clear. Wheeled nippers or the Chipper Nipper both work great on her. 1.5oz for $26.

New Tack Fuse Yellow Cardinal

The NEW tack fuse Yellow Cardinal will add a perfect splash of color to your scenes. Wheeled nippers required for this cutie as well as a light tack fuse so the outer shape stays intact. 1.5oz for $27.

Tack Fuse Cardinals

The Red Cardinal will always be my personal favorite. Wheeled nippers required for our red friend as well as a light tack fuse so the outer shape stays intact. 1.5oz for $27.

Tack Fuse Blue Jays

The Blue Jay will require wheeled nippers as well as a light tack fuse so the outer shape stays intact. 1.5oz for $27.

Tack Fuse Grey Titmouse

And like the rest of our birds this week, Mr. Grey Titmouse will also require wheeled nippers as well as a light tack fuse so the outer shape stays intact. 1.5oz for $27.

Red Speckled Ripple Petal

This beautiful flower is perfect tack fused to fully fused, but looks very different when fully fused. See the fully fused version below from the front and the back. Consisting of both transparent and opal reds, this beauty is a joy to work with. Wheeled nippers required. 1.5oz for $26.

Green Spotted Spider Mum

This is one of my very first flowers I every made, but with the addition of inner dots (thanks to Lori Moreno's designs which give me inspiration). Gorgeous tack fused to fully fused and both types of nippers work well on this millefiori. 1.5oz for $26.

Yellow Daisy with Subtle Orange Transitioning Middle

The Petals on this daisy are Oceanside yellow, but pick up a bit of orange shadowing from the inside transitioning center. Fused they become a bit more yellow. The center is subtle and oh-so-pretty. Both types of nippers work well. 1.5oz for $26.

Baby Blues

The Baby Blues are also one of my earlier designs and continues to be requested for a remake. These yellow dotted centers highlight this beautiful blossom. Great tack fused to fully fused and both types of nippers work well on her. 1.5oz for $26.

Orange Blossoms

These lovelies just pop in the flower box of this week's project. They really play well with the persimmon background of the project. Perfect tack fused to fully fused and both types of nippers work well. 1.5oz for $26.

SECONDS - Dotted Ripple Petals

Toward the end the pull, these ripple petals really started to show the speckles in the design. They are SECONDS only because the design is a bit uneven. Still, they are beautiful. 1.5oz for $20.

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FULLY FUSED versions on clear from the front and the back.


The Ladybug is cute from the back fully fused.

But from the front her dots shrink inward and her head becomes square. This is typical of a full fuse. The middle pulls inward and outer sides spread out. When murrini is not surround by clear, it tends to distort more. This is why she is best at a tack fuse. I make them this way as I don't care for ladybugs fully surrounded with clear as the outer clear is distracting to me personally. ;)

Flowers

This week's flowers from the back


And from the front. See how different but yet beautiful the Red Ripple Petal becomes! So pretty! And the Spider Mum. LOVE!

Birds

The Birds from the back.

And from the front. Little birdie blobs :) Even a contour fuse will soften these little cuties a bit too much. A test tile is always a good idea to see how they perform at  temperatures in your kiln before you put them on a project.

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Just some brief images of this week's projects. They are both pretty self-explanatory but will show you some of the stages.

The Italian Window

I cut my basic pieces and laid out everything I needed. The main background is Persimmon, with a black window and Chocolate shutters. The Flower box is a brown Oceanside swirl I've had for a bit. I also use it for anything I want to look like wood. I snipped up about an inch of each design and had some left over.

As much as I try not to use glue, I did use a touch of Dollar Tree Super Glue (I seem to have really good luck with it). You'll have to glue down your clear stringer as it won't sit still for you. This easy technique makes the window suddenly have subtle panes of glass and the shutters now have easy peasy slats.


I did put a smidge of transparent light green frit between the window and the flower box so the murrini sit up high and it made for nice filler behind them.

This was the "final version" until I realized I had butterflies this week! So I added them just before I shut the lid to the kiln. A LIGHT tack fuse for me is a top temp of 1305 with no hold.

A fun easy project.

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The Birdhouse Village

I wanted to do something fun this week with the birds instead of just sitting them on branches. I pondered birdhouses but needed some ideas. I pay for freepik.com (why they call it free when you have to pay I have no idea!!) which is a graphic design website where an annual subscription allows me to use of any of their images. I went there for inspiration and fell in love with this little graphic.

From there I chose my trusty blue/white wispy Oceanside glass as the background and laid out where I wanted my birdhouses with two pieces of Oceanside Chocolate stringer snuggled next to each other to make it a bit thicker. My tree branch is of course Joni's Variegated Brown Stringer that I use for all things brown and organic.

I did glue these in place as they tended to roll around. Just the tiniest touch of superglue.

Next I cut out my birdhouse shapes and wasn't too concerned about the tops being perfect as I knew I was going to cover them with small pieces of Oceanside noodles.


Noodles were placed and also glued down. I then played around with dots and hearts for the first part of the decorating stage. Also note I used Oceanside stringer as the "string" for the hanging birdhouses.


The decorating, for me, is the best part. I put this week's flowers in various places along with some TINIES as filler (see the Pink House and the Red House). I also took some of Joni's Variegated Green Stringer and put it to the torch to make fun wavy designs that I used as my Ivy Vine on the Wooden House. Note under the roof of the Pink House. The noodles were hanging over just a bit more than the others and I was concerned they may droop in the fuse. So I nipped some of this week's Ripple Petals really thin and slid them underneath to hold them in place. Also note where the noodles met at the top of the houses I placed a flower to cover the seam. :)

Into the kiln it goes, along with my Italian Window, with a top temp of 1305 no hold. It was perfect for a final "as-is" look.

 

 Thanks for checking out my blog this week!

Hints on the Horizon
Next week I'll have a NEW series of murrini. There are 15 designs in the works and I'll have a couple of really fun projects to show you how to use them! Stay tuned!

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Helpful Links:

If you are looking for COE 96 stringer, Joni pulls matching stringer for the items I have each week. Find her beautiful work at Aggie Glass Designs!

If you are looking for Mike LaChance’s COE 96 fusible bails, find his unique work at Mike’s Innovative Glass.

If you use COE 90, be sure to shop Lori’s beautiful murrini and mille options found at Wilderness Glass.