April 6, 2024 • Peace, Love and Hippies!
I don't think there has ever been a week that made me smile more than this one! Truly, you can't help but have happiness fill your heart when you think about the simplicity of nothing but love, peace and the act of sharing both of those. It's the small things that can bring big joy. Family, friends, a good laugh, learning something new, and doing art were my small yet big things this week.
SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT as far as the project goes, but let's get started with the murrini!! NOTE! Most of the murrini this week were put into mixes. IF I have singles shown below, please understand those are limited in quantity and will go quickly.
The Hippie Mix
This package weighs in heavy this week as you'll get one each of the 11 canes you see lined up. I wanted to add the green daisy as well, but it wouldn't fit in the package!! HA! You'll get a smiley face, orange and vanilla cream daisy, flame, green and yellow peace sign, rainbow leaf, rainbow daisy, mushroom, the new Yin Yang symbol, a LOVE, and two "splats" ... brown and blue. This mix will be $38.
Speaking of NEW designs...I tried two new ones! A Yin Yang and the Peace Sign with a full border. It took a few tries and I was really happy with the final result. However...anytime there is testing, that means there were a few trial design pots that weren't quite perfect yet. But still too good not to share (at a discount of course)!
Test Trio (SECONDS)
Here are my first tests. Two peace signs and the first Yin Yang. I was pretty excited about all of them, but they just needed tweaked a bit more. The peace sign on the right is black and hydrangea. I recommend these being tack or contour fused to retain the shape if you want it to look "as-is". They are also great "Flip and Fused". If fully fused, the border of the peace signs gets pretty wide, but still cool. The Yin Yang spreads out as well. (See all the fully fused versions below from both the front and the back). You'll see several designs flip and fused in my project this week. 1.5oz for $20. Since these were not in the mix, I have lots of these mixes available.
Smiley Faces
Who can resist these sweeties!?! I've fused them at all levels and are really adorable. 1.5oz for $26.
Flames
I have multi-sized flames in the shop already, but I'll be adding these to that listing as an "All Larger Size" option. The current flames in my shop have lots of fun sizes and interior designs which makes for a nice fire. ;) All flames are 1.5oz for $26.
Green and Yellow Peace Signs
Samples of these peace signs tack fused and fully fused can be found here in the blog (Flip and Fused as well). Fun to work with. 1.5oz for $26.
Yellow and Black Yin-Yang
New Yin-Yang design. Again, samples of tacked and fully fused can be found on the project or in the blog. Was tickled with these! 1.5oz for $26.
Rainbow Daisy
A remake of this great design. Always a favorite and great at all temps. 1.5oz for $26.
Rainbow Duo (Leaf and Daisy)
After the mixes were complete, I had a few leaves left. So I paired them with the rainbow daisy for a fun Duo. The leaves I prefer tacked so the point remains, but they are beautiful fully fused as well because they are so vibrant! 1.5oz for $26.
Sweet Pea Daisy
These little fellas were meant for the mix, but I couldn't fit them in the bag! So they'll be sold as separates. Gorgeous no matter what temp you fuse them in. 1.5oz for $26.
Mushrooms
Can't have a hippie scene without the mushroom. These are best at a light tack fuse! 1.5oz for $26.
Orange and Vanilla Cream Daisy
The orange in the center of this daisy is a combination of transparent and opals. They are bold and beautiful. Great fused at all temps. 1.5oz for $26.
Flat End Daisy Petal Trio
These flat-end daisy petals are a must-have for your hippie designs. In my sample this week, I have a flip and fused peace sign as a center, as well as a smiley face. SO many OPTIONS with these! Pretty in all temperatures. 1.5oz for $26.
SECONDS Rainbow Leaf and Daisy Duo
These are seconds because the designs were either a bit off center or toward the end of the pull. If you see one with a "perfect" inside, there is probably a ding, scratch or inclusion on the exterior you might want to look for. Still, too gorgeous not to fuse with. 1.5oz for $20.
SECONDS Youghiogheny Plum Flat End Daisy Petals
I had a few of these flat end petals in my drawer. They are Youghiogheny Plum COE96. They test beautiful and I wanted to give you another option for daisies if you needed them. 1.5oz for $26.
Multi-Color Ripple Petals (with small centers)
These rainbow colored ripple petals are just like the ones I had earlier in the year except they have a smaller center. This mix is made with Oceanside Fusible COE 96 glass, but the purple flowers do have a touch of Youghiogheny URO 96, too. This mix is variegated, so you will sometimes see a fun variety of shades within the petals. You'll receive three of each color (purple, orange, blue, yellow and red) and the packages are weighing approximately 2oz. on average. Since the center design isn't as robust as the ones I sold earlier, I'm going to price these at $26 for 2oz. This is a LIGHT TACK FUSE murrini. Beyond that, you'll lose the rippled exterior. They do actually make interesting colored circles when fully fused, but do a test tile first to make sure you like that design. ;)
This week's murrini fully fused (front and back views).
Comparison of the original murrini to the same murrini after I flip and fused.
If you have questions about this technique, I have a tutorial on it in the TIPS section of the website. :)
NOW! On to the project!
Last year I did a similar hippie mix and made a cute little van. This time, since I just got home from a mountain vacation, I wanted to try the same van at night, in different colors and with mountains in the back ground...and with LIGHTS!
First I cut two pieces of 3mm black glass measuring 10X6. Then I drew my mountains on paper to get an idea of how big and where I wanted to put them. 
After I was happy with the size, I cut my drawing up to use the pieces as stencils for my project.
Here are the mountain tops and I did the same thing with the mountain body only on light grey and dark grey.
Here you can see the pieces cut and put on my single layer of black. I didn't worry about the lines meeting up perfectly on the mountains as I knew in the full fuse they'd run together and I was ok with there being a smidge of a divider between all the parts to help define the design.
Next I took my second piece of 3mm glass and lightly sprinkled it with clear powder to help prevent bubbles between my two solid pieces.
I then laid my piece on top of the prepared glass below it and put a dam along the edge just in case that edge of the far right mountain decided to be cranky and cause a little bumped out area. You can see that I initially put stars, but at the last minute took them off. I'm VERY glad I did as I don't think I would have liked them fully fused. So I thought I'd just add them at the end if the scene needed it (which it did not). I fused this at my regular full fuse schedule. Since all kilns are a bit different, I usually recommend you peek at Oceanside's Fusing Schedule to get you started if you are new to fusing.
After my full fuse was complete, then the real fun began! Decorating! I drew and cut out a van, just like I did the mountains, to lay on my project to make sure the size was good.
I traced a second version of it so I could cut it apart to use as my templates for my glass pieces. I then cut all my glass pieces out!
A special note here. On my first van (last year) I just cut circles out. This year I saw some of the COE 96 fusible Open Rings Mike LaChance was making and I knew those would be PERFECT for my headlights.
These rings really popped once the color was under them.
I then started moving my pieces onto my final project, making sure I kept the black glass as clean as possible in the process.
Here's how I made the windshield wipers! I took a brown piece of stringer and bent it in the torch into a U shape. I then just snipped the corners away in the shape of the wiper.
Ta Da! Too cute. I also added my LOVE side mirrors. :)
I just continued adding elements around trying to decide where I wanted everything. Since I had that brown stringer from the wipers, I laid it above the windows just for a little design element.
Here is where I stopped for a day. I knew I wanted my "Free" flowers to be BIG so I decided to flip and fuse them to give me bigger designs to work with.
The design is getting REALLY close at this point. I added some fine frit at the bottom to make the ground, but it's a combination of transparent and opals as I didn't want it to be too overpowering and I knew in the fuse that would be softer. You'll also see I have some of Joni's variegated brown stringer as my tree limbs AND as the LOGS of the fire. I'm telling you, you need that stringer in your arsenal ... it's SO versatile!
Now...let's talk about the things in the red circles! I was chatting with Mike LaChance about his tack bails, trying to come up with cool ways to use them. (This is the same tack bail that I use on my half circle pendants). Mike said that fairy lights would string through them and his initial idea for the bail was just that, to be able to hang things from them. LIGHT BULB! So you can see I have these clear bails placed where I wanted to string my fairy lights. I made sure I had fiber paper rolled up really tight and full in the holes as I needed to keep them open big. I also extended it a little past the opening as I wanted to make sure to keep them straight. My fear was they would tip a bit in the fuse. But I also knew I had used them a dozen times and they'd be perfect.
Here's a photo of Mike's Small Tack Bail. Be sure to fill the hole with fiber.
Here's the final version that I'm staring at before closing the lid. SO MUCH WORK and SO BEAUTIFUL....prayers were said. I'm not gonna lie. I also knew I had FIVE layers of glass in some places, so I was going to take this sloooooow. This was my schedule:
50>1150>30
350>1300>10
9999>950>5 hours (one hour per layer)
150>800>10
150>700>30
300>room temp
PERFECTION! This was a long fusing process. I set it on a Friday night and didn't peek until completely cooled on Monday morning.
So here's how I did the fairy lights! I bought the string that was only 3ft long so I didn't have too much excess to work with. I started with the tack fused bail on the right and fished it through to the bail on the left. I then started it back toward the first bail but measured so that the second string of lights fell in the center of the the first string so it looked like there were more lights. I then took a Commando strip (the kind that's like velcro) and stuck one side to the glass, wound my excess lights up and the put the other velcro side against the first one and it works perfectly. I'm sure there are all kinds of ways to hold the lights in the back, but I had the strips handy and they did the job.
Here is the final project outside for better lighting.
And here it is on the mantle of my fireplace.
Peace, Love and Joy to all of you who made it through this VERY long blog!
Beth
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Hints on the Horizon
Next week I'll have a lovely mix of green leaves (some new designs/colors) as well as a beach mix again (both per several requests). It's got the usual characters (Jellyfish, Starfish and Sand Dollar) but has a new "starfish flower" in a gorgeous teal/peacock blend as well as a Sandpiper (with a bit more grey on top... more similar to the Grey Titmouse)
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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.