Feb. 17, 2024 ~ Caribbean Dreams
Happy Friday! First of all, thanks to everyone who sent their birthday wishes to my sweet Mom. We had a great weekend celebrating her 85 beautiful years!
So after a really busy weekend, the thoughts of a vacation sounded pretty good. So the next best thing to going to the Caribbean is making beach themed murrini! My project this week was a success and I'll explain a bit more about it in a minute! But first let’s peek at all the goodies that will be available tomorrow, Saturday Feb. 17, at NOON central time.
Note: I don’t have stringer in my project this week, but Joni has pulled Caribbean transparent stringer to match this week’s theme and it’s the BOMB. Check it out as you won’t regret having this color in your stash of stringers.
Caribbean Mix
In this fun mix you'll get one White Blossom, Turquoise Blossom, Sandpiper Bird, Jellyfish, Sand Dollar, Starfish and three Ocean Bubbles from large to tiny. 1.5+oz $30.
I used murrini sparingly in this fun project which I'll explain below.
They also look adorable tack fused onto one of Mike's XL bails that are always perfect for projects such as these!
Sand Dollar
It seems like forever since I made these adorable Sand Dollars and they never disappoint! They are too cute and look lovely tack fused or fully fused. I think I probably like them best tacked to contour fused. 1.5oz $26.
Sample fully fused. Some of the center "legs" go off the sides of the murrini. If this is the case they are definitely better just tack fused as this will become more apparent in a full fuse as it will look like a streak going down the side. ;)
Ocean Bubbles
I created these Caribbean Blue circles to be underwater bubbles. They are a mix of transparent and opal glass and are very versatile. I have them in my ocean scenes as well as just a little element in my necklace shown below. Reminder the underlying glass you choose will make a difference in how these translate on your project since a portion of the glass is transparent. They are in a multi-size package from large to tiny. 1.5oz $26.
Blossom Duo
This week I also created some blossoms that I think are perfect for underwater flowers, blossoms floating on the beach, or wherever your creative mind takes you! You'll get an even mix of the Little White Wall Flower and Turquoise Blossom. If an extra cane is needed for weight, the White flower will be added. 1.5oz $26
Starfish
This is also a remake for me, but it's a bit brighter than the Starfish I have made in the past. I just fell in love with this one. It is sassy and perfect. In the photo below it is fully fused, which looks less like a Starfish, but is unique and gorgeous that way, too! 1.5oz $26.
Fully fused, and doesn't look as much like a Starfish, but check out the dotted center with striped petals. THIS is SO COOL! I might make more flowers like this in different colors. Hmmmm.....
Then of course tacked on one of Mike’s bails, which is very fun!
Jellyfish
These Jellyfish make me smile. This week’s Jelly is a brighter version than my more subtle Jellies in the past, but I thought it added a little extra kick of color to my scene. When these are fully fused, the wiggly legs absolutely look like they are moving. 1.5oz $26.
These make me so happy to look at. :)
Sandpiper Birds
Every beach scene needs little Sandpipers running along the shore being chased by the waves! Add some legs with stringer or paint to finish them off. Tack fused is definitely best on these. 1.5oz $27.
I used Easy Fire enamel paints for the legs on my Sandpipers.
Caribbean Daisy
The Caribbean Daisy was created with Oceanside transparent glass along with some opals. There will be a mix of different centers from all opal to all transparent and some with a beautiful mix of both. They are perfect tack fused to fully fused. 1.5oz $26
This cutie was tack fused on my pendant
Here is a sample of fully fused daisies with a fully opal center and a fully transparent center. Don't forget that the background glass you choose will make a difference when using murrini with transparent glass.
SECONDS Frilly Caribbean Ripple Petals
SECONDS....Well, let's talk about these little frilly fellas. I'm not sure why they were being cranky this week, but they were just off-center enough that I just put them all in one big mix and am selling them as seconds. You'll have them from the very start of the pull where the inner design goes way off the edges, all the way down to where it's surrounded fully by the outer color. I'll show you a sample of them tack fused and fully fused as they look VERY different. Still very pretty but this week they had a mind of their own. (Don’t we all sometimes! Ha!) 1.5oz $20.
Tacked.
Fully fused from the front.
Fully fused from the underneath. These will be super Flip and Fused.
Cardinals
Cardinals are back again as promised! These are best at a LIGHT TACK fuse and are fun to work with. 1.5oz $27.
Youghiogheny Pink Daisies
So…I would love to just be 100% Oceanside, but I'm nearing the end of what Pink Streaky glass I have, so I cracked out some of my Youghiogheny Pink. (I will always let you know if I’ve used some other brand besides Oceanside). It's mixed with Oceanside Vanilla Cream and they are spectacular and tested perfectly. 1.5oz $27. Gorgeous at a Tack to Full fuse.
It’s a subtle soft pink. 
Here it is fully fused. LOVE this sweetheart.
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Caribbean Dream Project
This week's project was a joy to make...with a couple of “Oh….” surprises!
It's got all the shades of the murrini this week with a fun twist on an easy way to make a crashing wave. My little bird family is out and about, scampering along the beach, which makes me giggle. This was a two-part fuse. First the underneath was fully fused, then the little elements were added and lightly tacked on.
First I started with Oceanside Almond Opal and Caribbean Transparent.
I forgot to take a photo of the glass above before putting it together, but first I took a 4X12 piece of Almond glass (which is underneath as the full base), and drew where I’d like the water to meet the sand. I then laid a 3.5X12 piece of Caribbean transparent glass over it and traced along the line I drew on my base glass. After scoring, breaking and smoothing my transparent glass, I laid it over a 12X3 piece of Almond glass I had placed over the base and traced the edge where the two will meet. After scoring and breaking the Almond glass, I smoothed it on the grinder. I wasn’t too worried about how perfectly they came together because I knew I’d be filling that gap with white fine frit to make a foamy edge to where my water and beach met. I put the upper transparent glass and the lower opal glass over the base and put just a teeny drop of super glue along the sides to keep them from moving. After filling the little gap with fine frit, I sprinkled a little mix of fine/med frit on the water and sand to create the look of my beach. I used Vanilla Cream, Almond, Medium Amber and Moss green frit as my “sand”. It was mostly fine frit.
After a full fuse I opened the kiln and said “SNAP!”. Not thinking my Vanilla Cream would react so much with the Caribbean…but boy did it ever. However, I wasn’t too put off by it as it could totally be little rocks along the shoreline. 
Next is the fun part where I get to “decorate” my project. I had some Adventurine Blue powder I was dying to use…in hopes it would be sparkly and fun. More on this in a minute. 
This painting by PJ Cook was my inspiration for my wave. I sifted the Adventurine Blue powder across the upper part of my scene (see photo above the painting), then sprinkled fine White frit to make the foam of the wave. Using my little spoon didn’t give me a thin enough line, so I put some frit in a folded piece of paper and practiced sprinkling on some glass before I attempted it on my project. 
After sprinkling on my White frit I then took the end of a paperclip and drew a straight line through my Adventurine powder to create the top of my crashing wave, then with the paperclip I made curved lines going down from the top line down to the white frit. This removed the powder to reveal most of the underlying Caribbean glass and give it the look of movement of the crashing wave’s curved water. 
After my wave was complete, I put a little line of GlasTac glue along the line where the water was running up into the sand and added more White fine frit to create the look of foam. I then decorated the rest with a few murrini. Sand Dollars, Starfish, Ocean Bubbles, a Jellyfish and a few Beach Flowers. 
Once I had everything in place, I painted my Sandpiper’s legs with Easy Fire Enamels and placed my birds over the top of the paint. I then decided I had too much frit as the foam (was competing with the wave) so I removed some of the White fine frit I had glued on. A trick I learned from Miriam DiFiore was to take a straw held tightly in your hand and hold it up to the end of your ShopVac hose and use it to gently and precisely suck up excess frit. Don’t suck your straw up into your shopvac tho! Hold carefully!
The final project after going in for a very light tack fuse.
So let’s talk about it. I was disappointed in how dark the Adventurine became and there was NO sparkle. So that made me a bit sad, but I love how all the murrini popped after tacking it on. The sky is a bit moodier than I thought, but it did set apart the crashing wave quite nicely. Here’s a closer look at that section.
So overall…I’m VERY happy with how this project turned out. It was pretty easy to make and I love the panoramic landscape look of it.
I have shared my full fuse and tack fuse schedules with you in previous projects, but just in case you didn’t know, Oceanside has a page of recommended schedules. I adjust mine from here, but they are a good conservative place to start. I like to ramp hotter than 300 going up through the devit zone and my tack fuse is only a top temp of 1300 or 1305, but since all kilns are different it might be slightly different for your project. :) Also, when adding murrini, I was told by my mentor that adding 50% more time to your anneal is a good idea.
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Hints on the Horizon
Next weekend will be my last week of new murrini before taking a short break in March. So on Feb 24 I'll have some remakes of recent items people missed and a few that were requested. I'll have more Pinks with some Lilac as well as a Sunflower Flat-End Petals, Hydrangea Flat-End Daisy petals and several other goodies.
UPCOMING CLOSURE:
I'll be closed most of March for some family time (and my birthday). My shop will close Feb 28 and open back up March 25. Part of this closure will be to make TINIES. I do this about once a year as they are a lot of work and require some strategic timing. I'll be away from the shop for just a bit, but before I go, I'll pull them and this will give Lisa two weeks to clean and chop them. I pull four tinies to about one normal size murrini, so you can imagine a dozen designs X4 to clean and chop. Good timing for us to tackle these adorable minis.
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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.