Feb 10, 2024 Find It In A Tree
I always say "This week was so fun"....but really, THIS WEEK WAS SO FUN! :) These are the murrini that will post tomorrow, Feb, 10 at Noon Central Time, which happens to be my mom's birthday. 85 years ago God blessed the earth with an extraordinary and humble soul that I'm lucky enough to call my mom.
She was also excited about this week's murrini. All the fun things you find in the trees. Leaves of course, but a new murrini as well...an APPLE! They are simple and perfect for so many things. So let's dive in!
In The Trees Big Mix
In this sweet mix you'll find one of every design this week. I didn't make up too many as the last time I did the full mix most wanted singles. So I did a bit of everything this week to make as much variety for everyone as possible. This BIG mix weighs heavy and your little bag will be stuffed! But what a better way to get to play with a sampling of everything! With this mix I worked on a fun project that ended up being HUGE (well...12X12) but very few murrini were used. Keep in mind that each murrini cane, if snipped around 3mm, will yield approximately 15 little chips! That's 180 little murrini chips from this mix.
On my big project, I first sketched out my design with a thin sharpie, then cut my glass and laid over top. It's a simple design but wanted something special with the new Apples, but highlight the other leaves, pinecones, acorns, etc.
After I cut out my pieces, I cleaned the area and carefully glued them down with a tiny drop (the tiniest of tiny drops) of superglue along the edge just to hold the pieces still.
The little apple barn was painted with some Easy Fire enamel paints. I also used a mix of frit for the path. Medium toward the foreground and fine as I made my way to the barn.
I fired this piece with this schedule:
300>1150>30
350>1305>no hold
9999>950>3 hours (I'm going to slump it into a dish and will hold 4 hours then)
150>700>10
300>room temp with NO peeking!
*See the bottom of the blog for my sad moment when I peeked in the kiln.
Also note the gorgeous stringer was created by my friend Joni from Aggie Glass Designs. She created this stringer for me this week that is variegated with different browns and black. It arrived packaged perfectly with not a single piece broken. Now for branches, it will require a little work on your end with either a candle or a Hot Head Torch (which is one of my shop's must-have-tools). It can be done in a candle flame, but a little more patience is required and it will need cleaned well afterwards. However, the torch makes fast work of manipulating these stringers. Just heat them up and when you feel movement, bend to your liking then remove from the flame and gently pull to thin out the edges. Put it back in the flame to continue with your shape or to separate it. You'll need to pull slowly outside the flame for a nice tapered tip. I made all kinds of wiggles and shapes and then the unused pieces I snipped and made my bird's nest. Couldn't have done it without the gorgeous stringers. If you pop into her shop and she's out, message her and she'll put you on a list when her next batch is ready!
Before firing.
After firing with a light tack fuse.
The little bird nest gives you a better idea of all the gorgeous colors in this custom stringer. It's amazing.
Next lets chat about the NEW APPLES! So my friend Lisa was chopping one day and she was inspecting the Red Flat End Poppy. She said "This could be an apple!" I told her I totally needed apples in my repertoire! So I made some modifications to my petals and voila! Do you know how many fun things we can make with these!?!?! I have a friend, Amanda, who is a school teacher, so I made her this little magnet with the apple stacked on some books! I'm SO excited to give it to her. The way I got the books was with the same swirly glass I used for the apple tree trunk. I scored it in very thin 1.8 inch strips and then laid it on its side so the INSIDE stripes of the glass would look like book pages. SO excited with this fun happy accident! Next time I make this, I"ll have just a smidge smaller leaf on it. The little books are about 3/4 of an inch across and the width of the little project is just one inch wide by 1 and 1/4 tall. LOVE!
Also, who doesn't need a little pail of Apples?
On black.
On vanilla cream with two leaves.
Fully fused I'm feeling more of a tomato vibe. 
A package of apples will have one leaf for every apple. 1.5oz for $26. Sizes will vary on the apples. The tiny apple leaves may vary slightly...but they are mostly very tiny. When snipped you'll need to grab your tweezers. ;) The apples snipped fine with both the wheeled nipper and the chipper nipper, although my preference was the chipper nipper. The leaves will require the wheeled nipper placed directly in the center.
Little Bird Trio
These little sweet birds are only available in a mix this week. I have Cardinals, BlueJays and the Grey Tufted Titmouse! Best at a tack fuse, you'll get THREE canes of EACH bird. 1.5+oz. $30
TINY SECONDS Cardinals
These are seconds because the beak of the cardinal has elongated and his eye is gone. But when they are tiny they are not as noticeable. There may be a few larger ones here and there, but for the most part, they are all tiny. 1 ounce for $15.
Ladybugs
Ladybugs always add the perfect touch. The sizes will vary in each order. These ladies, because they are not surrounded by clear, don't hold up as well in a full fuse. I highly recommend a light tack on her. 1.5oz $26.
She's fun to fuse with.
Acorn and Pinecone Mix
You'll receive a 1.5oz package for $26. A mix of Acorns and Pinecones. I like them best at a light tack fuse.
Pinecones
I'll also have a few packages of just Pinecones! The insides will vary in color and design. Sizes will vary slightly as well. 1.5oz $26. Tack fuse is best.
Next I'll have the following leaves...which are all best at a tack fuse. 
Here is a pic of them all tack fused together in a fun necklace.
Curved Bold Green Leaf
1.5oz for $26. Tack fuse is best.
Green Leaf Mix
1.5+oz for $28. Tack fuse is best.
Green Ombre Leaf
1.5oz for $26. Tack fuse is best.
Multi-size Gorgeous Green Leaves
1.5oz for $26. Tack fuse is best.
Tiny Gorgeous Green Leaves
1oz for $20. These will come by the ounce and are not seconds. I just thought this week we needed some tinies in the mix!
Transparent Green Leaves
1.5oz for $26. Tack fuse is best.
Two-Toned Slender Apple Leaves (larger than the ones that come with the apples)
1.5oz for $26. Tack fuse is best. These are larger than the tiny leaves you'll get with the apples. They are from the same pull and are beautifully two-toned. They were too large to go with the apples, but will be gorgeous as a leaf for just about anything. These snip best with wheeled nippers placed right in the flat center.
TINY SECONDS leaf mix
These are all seconds as the center veins are very organic. 1 ounce packages for $13
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Alrighty glass friends! I think this covers it for the week. Most times I won't have such an extensive blog...but when I have this much fun I love sharing it with those who love to fuse. I miss teaching...this fills that void for me.
Hugs and Blessings,
Beth
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Hints on the Horizon
Next week is a Caribbean theme! Yep...all the fun things warm, beachy and vacationy such as Jellyfish, Sand Dollars, gorgeous transparent Caribbean blue flowers and circles and MORE! Will also have Pink Daisies again but this time I'll be using some System 96 Compatible Youghiogheny Pink Opal.
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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 open bails, find his unique work at Mike’s Innovative Glass.
If you use COE 90, be sure to shop Lori’s beautiful murrini options found at Wilderness Glass.
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This week's sad moment:
Disaster...I went to look at my firing schedule and clearly by the slick crack it happened on the cool down. Totally my fault. What I forgot to program was the last part. The 300>Room Temp was left off my program because the last time I ran that program it was for a quick test. AND to make matters worse, it was in my small kiln that cools the fastest. So...oof. Even at that rate it would have been too fast I think and I should have held my anneal a bit longer. Not sure I've stacked that much glass before but as always, a good teaching moment.
It slid back together perfectly so I moved it to my bigger kiln for a "Never refuse to re-fuse" fix.
What I did here was take a 12X12 2mm clear piece of glass as the bottom layer and lightly dusted it with clear powder to help reduce bubbles. I placed my broken piece on top and added frit at the bottom where the crack was and then in the sky I dusted white powder in the middle and took a little paintbrush to add my own "cloud" design. The clear powder will hopefully be enough to hide the crack down the middle of the sky.
My new UBER conservative schedule ... and technically this piece is now 6 layers thick in some spots. The back clear piece, the streaky blue 12X12 original base, three layers of Adventurine Green for the tree and apples on that top layer. Even though my kiln said 75 degrees when I opened it, the tree was still much warmer.
SO the new firing schedule in my larger kiln:
150>1150>30
350>1305>5
9999>950>5 hours
150>700>10
50>75>0
So I'm going up slower, annealing basically an hour per layer, then coming down SUPER slow after the anneal. Will report back here next week with the results. It's totally worth the try to repair it.
Update. So I put it in the kiln with the SLOWEST firing schedule. This was a Friday night. I knew I wouldn't be able to peek in the kiln until Sunday. So Friday evening I was awakened by hail hitting my bedroom window and the sound of thunder and my generator kicking on. Our power was out for about 4 hours. I had no thoughts of the project as my sister was visiting and all I could think about was hail damage to her car. The next day I popped into my shop uptown and saw the kiln blinking PF. I just stood their and sighed. The temperature was at 130 and it should have still be very hot. I lifted the lid to find exactly what I had feared. I snipped away the top left because the stringer branches and birds were adorable and the rest hit the scrap pile. I'll attempt it again some day!
