Jan 2, 2026 • Tinies, Olive Kits, Dragonflies and Hippie Vibes
And just like that...it's 2026! Where does the time go? I'd like to start off by wishing you a very Happy New Year! I hope it's the best year ever for you, your family, and your glass art!
Speaking of glass art and a new year...just a reminder in case you missed my previous blog and Facebook post, I'll be moving to a new schedule in 2026. I'll only be posting new murrini on the FIRST Saturday of each month. Easy to remember...a new month, new murrini! However, my online store will still be open every day. If you missed my December 14, 2025 blog, I explain it all there and it's a short read. 😉
So my December was spent with family and making murrini for tomorrow's sale! I'm excited as there will be TINIES tomorrow! I make these little labor-intensive beauties once a year, so grab them if you need them as you won't see them again for awhile. I did make a lot, so there will be enough for everyone!
I also had a recent request for the Olive Mix again. I forgot how fun this murrini was to work with. They are simple in design and color, but fully fuse and tack fuse beautifully. Feeling quite Italian with the yellows and olive greens, I decided to create a new color of Dragonfly and the next piece in my Dragonfly/Jar series! Pretty excited about it.
As promised I have Cardinals again (mama and papa) as well as Mountains, and a cute little mix and singles with a Hippie vibe. More to come on all these a bit later in the blog!
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Housekeeping notes:
All my murrini are COE 96. This week's murrini will go on sale tomorrow, Saturday, January 3, at NOON Central Time.
Don't forget my next sale will be Saturday, February 7, 2026 (the first Saturday of each month).
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17 Design Tinies Mix
There are 17 designs in this bright and beautiful mix! It is made from Oceanside glass except for one color, Youghiogheny Plum, which is the darker purple found inside the Lilac Teardrop. Tinies are perfect for little art pieces, as filler in bigger projects, and wonderful in micro mosaic pieces. If you've never purchased Tinies before, I think you'll be very surprised at how often you use these little pieces in your work.
The mix will have two canes each of these 17 designs:
Tiny BUTTERFLIES!!
Orange Teardrop
Lilac Teardrop (with Youghiogheny COE 96 Plum)
Little White Blossom
Vanilla Cream Ripple Petal with Black Center
Turquoise Leaf (slightly bigger than the other leaves)
Southwest Ripple Petal
Blue Blossoms
Vanilla Cream Flat-end Daisy Petals
Slender two-toned Green Leaf
Gorgeous Green Leaf
Black and White Circles
Black/Yellow/Red Transitioning Circles
Red Daisy
Ombre Green Leaf
Orange Cream Daisy
Transparent Olive Slender leaf (not pictured but can be seen in this week's Olive Mix)
Size comparison next to a dime.
A tack fused version on the left and a fully fused version on the right. 
A sample of Tinies not fused, but simply snipped and placed in a mosaic piece. There are several tutorials you can find online for this micro mosaic process and lots of fun bezels out there by Googling "jewelry bezels". Check out witsendmosaic.com for some lovely bezel options as well. A link to their website is at the bottom of the blog.
Other Tiny groupings that will be available:
5 Design Tiny Blossom
This little mix of tiny flowers will have 5 each of the 5 designs in it. They are all great tack to fully fused, except the little ripple flower will round out in a full fuse losing its rippled exterior.
Trio of Tiny Leaves
This 1oz. mix of tiny leaves will have .3+oz. of each design in it.
Duo of Tiny Circles
This 1oz. mix of tiny circles will have .5oz. of each design in it.
Tiny White Flat-end Daisy Petals
This 1oz. package will have all precious vanilla cream tiny Flat-end Daisy Petal in it.
Tiny Teardrop Duo
This 1oz. mix of tiny teardrops will have .5oz. of each design in it.
Olive Kits
The Olive Mix was a requested remake and has simple designs that create the most extraordinary projects! The leaves in this lovely mix (one fully transparent leaf, one fully opal leaf, and one half opal and half transparent leaf) accompany the black olives which have a curved white inner highlight. Snipped at about 3mm, you’ll be able to get approximately 12-15 slices from each cane. In my "Tips and Tutorials" section of the website I have a new video showing how to snip this slender leaf to get two different results (a flat edge and a curved edge).
There are two sizes of Olive kits. The 1.5oz packages will have larger sized murrini canes and will contain two of each of the three leaves and two olive canes. The leaves in the larger size will vary for variety. The 1.3+oz packages will have smaller sized murrini canes containing two each (or more) of each of the three leaf designs and three smaller olives. I used both sizes of olives in my project this week so you can easily compare.
Note: the Olives have a little white "highlight" in them (like a light reflecting off them from a window) and you'll want to be careful to make sure all the highlights are going in the same direction in your scene. 😉
These murrini are lovely tack fused, but fully fused they spread into a beautiful soft painted-like appearance. Below is a short video of a project I created with this design several years ago.
Tack Fuse Olive Green and Yellow Dragonflies 
Categorized by the size of the wings, body and overall weight, there will be Small, Medium, Large and XL Dragonfly Kits. Each kit will include 4 wings, 1 body and 3 black stringers for the tail. One kit will make 16 Dragonflies!
I photographed the wings by a dime for size reference. Each kit will be as consistent as possible, but NOTE: there were several batches of wings made and each one has a slightly different pattern. I recommend snipping ONE WING at a time so your Dragonfly wings match each other in both size, color, and pattern. Of course, you let your creativity take flight and use them however you want!
If you haven't had the chance to watch this past video on how to cut and assemble the dragonflies, please take a moment to watch!
You can use 4 wings or 2 wings depending if it is a top view or a side view! 
Hippie Fun Mix
I recently sold the last of my hippie mix and had a request for them to be sold as singles. I have just a few packages of mixes because the Peace Sign had a slightly imperfect design throughout most of the pull, but I had enough perfect ones to make a few mixes. The rest of the designs are sold as singles and you'll find the Peace Signs also sold as "Slight Seconds" at a little bit of a discount. 
Here are the murrini from the Hippie Fun Mix tack fused. Details on how I made this simple-yet-adorable "Tree of Love" can be found a bit later in the blog. Since the teardrops were not in the project, I just wanted to show you how they make an adorable daisy (see inset photo).
All Smiles
Who can't smile back when seeing these sweet little faces? They are best at a light tack fuse so they remain "as is". In a full fuse, the inner design pulls in and the sides spread out which creates a smaller face with more yellow around the outside. If you do want to fully fuse them, I recommend testing one first to see how it behaves for you.
I did a little test with them and the far left is just snipped off the cane, the middle one is "Flip and Fused". It caught a little bubble in the eye, but this technique will make it larger and a more magnified dot. Finally the far right smiley face is shown fully fused on clear.
LOVE Murrini
Love is in the air! These sweet murrini are so versatile. Tack fusing is always best when you want to keep them "as is". Fully fusing works, but like all murrini, the inside shrinks inward and the outside spreads out. I put one little slice in the bottom of a heart mold (be sure to place it backwards as you'll be viewing the underside when the heart is flipped over) and filled the top of the mold per usual with medium clear frit, twistie pieces, and murrini. 
I made these to hand out at the hospital for those who cared for my dad last week. Beautiful from the front with murrini and twisties, with a sweet little message on the back when turned over.
Red Mushrooms with Dots
Per a request, I have Red Mushrooms again. They are a light tack fuse for sure! If not, you’ll lose the look of the stem, the inside dots will shrink inward, but most importantly, the mushrooms with a white dot at the edge will cause that dot to become elongated and not look right. See my fully fused version a bit lower in the blog.
SECONDS Peace Signs
Yep, so here they are...these little Peace Sign buggers were off just slightly in part of the pull and some legs are a bit wiggly. They'll be found with other "Seconds" tomorrow toward the end of the listings on the second page. They will be sold in a 1.5oz. package and priced accordingly. ;)
Male Papa Cardinal and Female Mama Cardinal
Male and female Cardinals are back and will be sold as singles this time. Tack fuse recommended.
Mountains (not seconds but please read)
So ... for those of you who are Oceanside users, you'll know what happened here. In the light gray section of the mountain you'll see two colors of the lighter gray. This is because it was from two different runs of Oceanside's light gray and as we know, their batch to batch colors are often quite different. I didn't see this until I pulled it. My heart sank, but when tack fused or fully fused, those two colors blended together. Therefore, I would not recommend these for those who are using in a mosaic and not fusing them again as they'll look "as-is", but in a tack fuse test and a full fuse test, the light gray difference is negligible. 
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This week's murrini fully fused test pieces. They all tested perfectly under polarizing filters.
This gives you an idea of how each murrini looks fully fused. Also, it's a great comparison to show how tiny the TINES actually are.
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This week's projects:
The Tree of Love
The first step in this quick and easy project was to cut a 4X4" square as the backing. I cut a small trunk out of chocolate brown, then snipped these rough cut shapes of green by snipping along the edge of the glass with wheeled nippers. I then put some Glastac glue down in the shape of the upper tree and made an outline of my tree shape.
After filling in the rest of the tree with green pieces, I put a few of the same snipped pieces along the bottom to create some "grass" by turning the piece on its edge. There was a little gap in the far right side, so I slid in a piece of clear medium frit in the opening as a little landing spot if the green piece started to slump too much in the tack fuse. That worked well!
Next comes the fun part ... putting the murrini on! I placed one design at a time so they were evenly spaced. Once I was happy with the layout I put a single mushroom at the bottom and one of Mike LaChance's COE 96 "Sitting Bails" (with fiber in the hole to keep it from closing up). Mike has really fine-tuned his craft and now offers a new slender version of the paddle. Nice stuff, Mike! A link to Mike's shop is at the bottom of the blog. 😉
I ran a light tack fuse program in my new Hot Shot 24G. My top temperature was 1310 with a 5 minute hold. I follow Oceanside's recommended temperatures (as far as ramps in each segment) but my top temp for a tack fuse is not as high as theirs. I prefer a very light tack fuse most of the time. A link to Oceanside's firing schedules can be found at the bottom of the blog.
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On the Italian Table
Something I love about going to Italy is admiring all the beautiful ceramic work. Over the years I've purchased several olive oil decanters, table cloths, and other kitchen goodies that frequently have a minimalist design made with olives and leaves. I love the simplicity of it. It's elegant. In this photo the three different leaves were used, but it was hard to capture the slight differences in the photo. It is evident in real life. One leaf is transparent olive green, one leaf is opal olive green, and the third one is half opal/half transparent. Subtle but perfect (in my opinion).
Let's take a peek at what's getting ready to cook in my Hot Shot 24G. In the upper left I have a 9.5" piece of opal Olive green glass, sprinkled with clear powder. This helps minimize bubbles from getting trapped between two large pieces of glass in a full fuse. On top of olive green is a piece of Ivory that is 3/8" smaller on each side than the underlying glass. On the bottom of the underlying glass I have sprinkled on medium frit (sunflower, opal olive, transparent olive and transparent yellow) then I took the edge of a long ruler and slid it down the glass until it created a straight/flat line across the top of the frit. This will make for a straight line to place my next pieces on.
Next to the background piece you'll see a 5mm piece of clear that has light transparent green already fused into it. That is because I thought I'd take my project in a totally different direction initially and fully fused up a different background piece...which I did NOT like where it was going, but did love the olive oil in the jar. So I put some olives and leaves on it so I can have the look of those either INSIDE or on the BACK SIDE of that glass when flipped over. You'll see that in a minute.
On the far right side you'll see two pieces of 3mm Ivory glass (with clear powder in between as well) with my olive/leaf design on it. You can make this any size you want your decanter to be. I had some olive stringer that I pulled from the end of the transparent leaf pot, but Joni from Aggie Glass Designs will have olive stringer available for purchase this week if you need some! The link to her shop is at the bottom of the blog.
Finally the piece in the front is the same as the pre-fused "olive oil in clear" piece behind it, but did this just in case I didn't want the olive/leaf design fully fused into the other piece. That clear piece is 5mm and the top light olive green is just 3mm. You could have also used two pieces of 3mm clear together to make it nice and thick. I just happened to have some extra 5mm clear laying around.
I drew my decanter designs on paper, cut them out, then traced around the paper over the glass with a sharpie. I put chapstick over the sharpie marks to help hold it on from the water shooting out of my Taurus as I cut out the shapes. It doesn't work perfectly, as the water from the saw still blows some of the sharpie off, but certainly helps hold the markings on enough to get the job done.
I love the look of the fully fused olives/leaves into my Ivory glass and clear glass. The clear glass on the right shows it flipped over so that the fully fused decoration now looks like it is inside the glass or on the back side. It's cool. I used a little bit of easy-fire enamels to create some lines showing depth to the olive oil jar, painting it on the front side where the fully fused murrini are and did run it again to a top temp of 1350 to set the paint.
I sprinkled a little bit of clear powder under these larger pieces to again help with bubble prevention, then took a little brush and removed any excess powder from the scene.
For the final step of the project I placed some stringer along the bottom of each decanter, with olives and leaves. I wanted these tack fused on to look like actual branches and olives on the table. I then sprinkled a little bit of medium frit (like on the bottom) on the piece. I FORGOT TO DO THIS IN THE INITIAL FUSE and was bummed, as I love the way it looks fully fused into the glass. But that's ok. This worked.
Once the frit was down I placed my dragonflies. There is an XL dragonfly on the upper right and a small dragonfly in the middle. This shows you the difference from small to XL. Also, the little black canes in your Dragonfly Kit will taper from large to small. Snip these really thin...like little hockey pucks (see video in the Dragonfly info above as a refresher if you've forgotten how thin to snip them). They have a fun oval shape to them. I used Glasstac glue under the dragonflies to help hold everything in place as I worked. Take your time with the tail making sure it tapers from large to small and that each piece touches the one in front of it. Let the glue fully dry before fusing.
The little feet of the dragonfly over the left decanter is made from Oceanside black stringer that I gently pulled apart in a flame and then quickly kissed each tapered end in the flame to give it a little curve.
This was a low and slow project at this point. Lots of thick layers. I took the piece up 150 degrees per hour during the first and final segment. My top temp was 1305 with a 5 minute hold in my Hot Shot 24G. I followed all the steps in Oceanside's recommended firing schedule, but held my anneal for 6 hours.
It's perfect!
Note: the Olives have a little white "highlight" in them (like a light reflecting off them from a window) and you'll want to be careful to make sure all the highlights are going in the same direction in your scene. 😉
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Hints on the Horizon:
My next drop of new murrini with be the FIRST Saturday in February. That will be 02/07/2026. I'll have lots of flowers, leaves and so much more!
Don't forget I'll be taking my upcoming Torch class at the Corning Museum the third week in January. 🙌🏼 My online shop will be closed at that time, but watch for some fun photos from my adventures in the next blog! Woot woot!
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Helpful Links:
If you use COE 90, be sure to shop Lori’s beautiful murrini 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. Joni is also my supplier for the Window Cards that we can use for our artwork.
For beautiful COE 96 Twisties, check out Sherry's lovely work at Love•Peace•Create•Shop.
Kiln shopping? Check out my friends at Hot Shot Oven & Kiln. They'll give you great customer service along with a great product made in Wisconsin!
Looking for a good Chipper Nipper or Leponitt wheeled nippers? I recommend purchasing these two "must-haves" from witsendmosaic.com. They call the Chipper Nipper "Ceramic Scissors". The wheeled nippers I prefer are the Leponitt G30C. They also have lovely jewelry bezels, too!
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.
I buy my Easy Fire Enamels from Cheryl Chapman's website.
Looking for a pneumatic chopper? Sue and Brad Darte make a great product backed by excellent customer service.
For Janice's pre-cut COE 96 ornament blanks, find her at LakeRabbitDesigns.