January 18, 2025 • Aquarium Fun

Hello! Happy 2025 to you all. I hope this upcoming year will be filled with fun projects and beautiful murrini. My first project of the year is a special one, whispered into my ear by my sweet Colorado friend, Elizabeth Page. When I made the glass box a few months ago, she immediately thought of the idea of a small aquarium. Genius. Working on this project over my holiday break made it an exceptionally fun one and I’m excited to share the murrini and creative steps with you.

So much has happened during my Christmas break, including moving into my new glass shop which is now next to my house. To say it is glorious is an understatement. I had no idea how much I would appreciate the convenience…and WINDOWS!  

Housekeeping Notes:
My plans are to stay with the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month being the days I put new murrini in my online shop at Noon Central Time. I will continue to blog ahead of time so you can see on the 1st and 3rd Fridays what I’ll be posting the next day. I also anticipate it being a year my family is going to need me a bit more, which will be a priority. So some weeks might not have quite as many items as others weeks. But like all of us, we joyfully go day to day with grateful hearts. ❤️

I also have a new page in the TIPS section of my website called “Snip Tips”. In this section I’ll have a photo of a murrini shape inside the nipper (Leponitt Wheeled Nipper or the Chipper Nipper) exactly where I place my nippers for the best snip for each unique shape (note: you might find a way or placement that works better for you, which is great). I’ll be adding new photos/shapes regularly and hope a visual helps demonstrate nipper placement better. 

For those who are new, I’m COE 96 only and all of this week’s murrini are made with Oceanside glass. These items will go on sale tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 18, at NOON Central Time. 

The Aquarium Mix

This sweet mix is weighing in heavy at 1.75+oz. You’ll get one each of the Peacock Starfish, Sandy Starfish, Green Jellyfish, Creamy Jellyfish, Sand Dollar, Blue Nosed Fish with tail and Yellow Nosed Fish with tail as well as a brand new fish named Tropical Ted. These murrini designs will also be offered as singles or duos this week.

A Fishy Duo (sizes will vary in each package)

These sweet little fish will come with a tail. I prefer them at a tack fuse, but also fully fuse well with a rounded shape. One fish will have a yellow nose and one will have a blue nose. Sizes will vary in each package and on average there will be four total fish canes with 8 tail canes. Per all my designs this week, see my new “Snip Tips” section under Tip/Tutorials for nipper placement.

Tack Fuse Sand Dollars

These lovely Sand Dollars are one of my favorites. I have these labeled as “Tack Fuse” because most of these cuties have the inner “star” design running to, or very close to the outer edge. They will look perfect as-is in a tack fuse, but if you fully fuse them, when they spread out they may have a light line going down the side that you might find undesirable. However, if you have some in your package that the “star” is clearly surrounded by the outer color, a full fuse will be perfect!

Here they are fully fused with one fully surrounded by the outer color (on the left) and then when the tips of the inner design go all the way to the edge (on the right). The one on the right has that striped appearance and is best tack fused if you want to avoid this look.

Green Jellyfish

This cute Jelly was created with a sassy Lime Green. The wiggly legs remain adorable when tack fused or fully fused.  Sizes will vary in each order.

Creamy Jellyfish

This adorable Jellyfish was created with Vanilla Cream, so when fully fused on some blues or greens there may be some dark reactions when looking from the underside or around the edges. The wiggly legs remain adorable when tack fused or fully fused. I use wheeled nippers placed right in the center (see the new “Snip Tips” section). Sizes will vary slightly in each order.

Peacock Starfish

This bright and beautiful Starfish adds a splash of color to your beach scenes. I love them as-is, which requires just a light tack fuse. However, fully fused they spread out beautifully. See the fully fused version below.

Sandy Starfish

This Starfish has a natural beachy color. Like the Peacock version above, I love them as-is, which requires just a light tack fuse. However, fully fused this beauty also spreads out. See the fully fused version below.

Tropical Ted the Fish

Tropical Ted is a new design for me where the fish’s tail is contained within the single murrini. He is made with both transparent and opal glass. He is sweet in a tack fuse to full fuse. See his fully fused version below.

Sea Blossoms

These bright blossoms look adorable in the aquarium attached to coral or floating around the the scene. They are perfect tack fused to fully fused. 

Transparent Green Leaves (Sizes will vary)

These beautiful transparent leaves have many uses! Of course as a leaf, but also you’ll find them as an underwater plant in the Aquarium Project. They have opal veins and are best at a light tack fuse to keep the outer shape intact. The fully fused version is also below which shows how interesting this design becomes when it spreads out. 

Tack Fuse Sea Shell Duo

The sweet Sea Shells are not found in the aquarium mix, but are being sold as a duo this week. Sizes will vary within each package. You’ll receive equal amounts of both Lilac/Pink and the Brown canes. If an extra cane is needed for weight, a Brown Shell will be added. A very light tack fuse is required to keep the frilly outer shape intact.

Fancy Blue Hearts (Mixed Sizes)

These blue and yellow multi-size hearts are a versatile murrini (yep…these are the same as the fish tails only in different sizes). Use them as a heart or put as a grouping with the points inward to make the most beautiful flower. You’ll receive a package of multi-sized hearts but they will be mostly medium and tinier with small and large sizes mixed in as well. 

Multi-size Gorgeous Green Leaves

The multi-size Gorgeous Green Leaves are back in stock! They will come packaged with Tiny to Large leaves for a nice variety to fuse with. 

Sea Urchins

This fun design is not in the Aquarium project, but I decided this week a Sea Urchin might be a fun addition to the group. I had made a design in the past that when fully fused into a dot, someone had used it as an Urchin. So with that idea in mind, I used  Chambray Blue, transparent Deep Aqua, Vanilla Cream and Ivory for this cutie. Below you can see some of the ways to fuse this intricate murrini.


Here are the "Sea Urchins" fused in all ways. From the left, the larger ones have been "Flip and Fused" (see my Tips/Tutorials page for this technique). The center section shows them lightly tack fused, then just snipped and fully fused (my intent for them to look like Sea Urchins). The far right sample shows this design fully fused onto a 5mm clear square. They can be used in so many ways for fun design elements in your projects. 


Multi-size Swirly Sea Bubbles (Imperfects)

These Sea Bubbles will come in mixed sizes and the inner designs are unique swirly circles that give movement to the inner part of the bubble. The inner design was unintentional (hence priced as "Imperfects"), but quite fitting for an underwater scene. They will be sold in a slightly heavier weight of package (1.5oz) and at a slight discount because of the perfectly imperfect design ($20). 

Here are this week’s murrini fully fused


You can see that the Jellyfish are adorable fully fused as well as the circular designs. The Seashells and hearts lose their shape and the two-part fish become quite rounded. However, Tropical Ted is adorable fully fused. 
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Now on to the Aquarium project!


The first thing I did was to fuse up some coral pieces. I just used some fatter stringer that I had and laid them on my kiln shelf, randomly overlapping in several places. Joni has a wonderful variety of stringer to choose from in her Aggie Glass Designs shop. It’s a great use of the larger ends that might be too big for flower stems. I also sprinkled some clear medium frit on the kiln shelf paper as well to make tiny bubbles that will be coming out of my fish’s mouths. The left side is the before photo, and the right side is the after photo. As you can see, the white decided to jump apart, but that is ok, I used the longer piece. The itty bitty bubbles are perfect.


I’m jumping ahead with this photo, but it is to show you the sizes of the pieces I used. The side panels were 5.5” wide by 4” tall. The side pieces were 1 and 1/8” wide by 4” tall. Also, I purchased the LED wooden bottom from Amazon. They came four to a package and I stained this one dark walnut. The little clear strip I put in the bottom to cover the LED space was about .5" wide by 5" long.


First I put all my pieces out in my working area. I have snipped my murrini as thin as possible for this project and I have a frit mix of Persimmon, Dark Amber, Chocolate and Almond. You can use any mix of frit colors for the bottom! Don't forget, Val Cox has the most stunning COE 96 frit blends! They would be spectacular in this project.


I put a thin smear of GlasTac at the bottom of all the pieces to adhere my frit mix to, which is the bed of the aquarium. Make sure you have no frit hanging over the bottom as the piece will need to sit flat. I then started laying out my design and murrini elements. REMEMBER…we are going to lightly tack fuse this project and the textured side will be INSIDE. This means your panels will be facing each other. Keep this in mind when laying out your design. Imagine the two lower panels above, when fused, the white coral will be overlapping each other and the green will be overlapping each other. 



Note, you’ll need to leave a small area at the end of your piece where there is no frit. This is because your side pieces will be glued here. When you add loose frit as the last step of your project, this will hide any areas that are clear. 


Here are my first panels in for a light tack fuse. The two on the right will be one aquarium and the two on the left will be my second aquarium. The panels were lightly tack fused with a top temp of 1310 with NO hold. This is a very light tack fuse in my kiln that does not cause much change in the shape of the glass besides a gentle rounding. I do not want to fuse it too hot to where the sides of the glass start to round or pull in as they won’t fit together perfectly. If you are uncertain as to what your “light tack” temperature is in your kiln, try a test tile to make sure your 3mm layer has not begun to pull in. 


It was suggested to me, when I created my glass box last year, that Gorilla glue gel worked better than E6000. So I decided to give it a try. It is supposed to still have some “give” to it after it sets up and I found it lovely to work with. I put the tiniest amount at the bottom of all the pieces, where we left the frit off next to the edge, and let it air dry until tacky before putting my pieces together.



Once assembled and they were close to sticking together without being held, I put some painters tape around the sides and added just a tiny amount of glue at the top joints. This takes some patience. Be prepared to hold your sides together for several minutes. I also let it dry up against my L ruler to keep it square until it fully dried.


Next I put my coral to the grinder just to make the bottom flat.


This is necessary for it to stand up in the middle of my aquarium. 


I first used a bit of super glue to tack them on instantly. However, super glue sometimes decides to not be so super after a few days, so I put a little Gorilla glue around the base as an added support.


I then tacked this clear .5" X 5" clear strip over the open area of the base with the Gorilla Glue (which is where the LED light comes from). I wanted to keep that covered with clear glass because I will be adding loose frit into my project at the end and didn’t want it falling down into that opening which blocks the light.



There is an approximate 1/4 inch space all around the base.


This is a view from above before the loose frit is placed inside.


Then a shot with the frit inside. Believe it or not, the frit completely blocked the LED light from shining through! So I took a long tool (I used some long tweezers) and just scooted off the frit in a line down the center between the inner coral pieces. It just needed scooted away a little bit for the lights to be seen. 


Here is one of my final versions. The second two aquariums I made I put on a stained base. I stained them myself with just some extra stain I had in my shop. I also added more coral and underwater critters as I felt my first two were a bit sparse. I also realized I had forgotten to make Sea Shells! How can I possibly have an aquarium without shells? So this version has all the elements in it except for my last minute urchins. 


Here it is at night lit from the inside base. It looks even better in person…I wish you were here. I can’t love this any more! I hope you love it, too!

Just a reminder that many of the murrini this week have Vanilla Cream in them. If you use light blue transparent glass as the sides of your aquarium, you’ll see an undesirable dark reaction between the murrini and your glass because the outside of your aquarium is what is normally the underneath side of our projects where reactions aren’t usually seen. 

Also, Joni has made a new batch of smaller blue Bubble Dots for those who may want them for their aquariums. She has them packaged in multi-size packages for use in any size project.

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Hints on the Horizon:
On Saturday, February 1, I’ll have Puppies and Cardinals (both Mama and Papa Cardinal) as well as a colorful Tulip Trio and Slender Green Leaves! For the 3rd Saturday in February (2/15) I’m in the development stages of an adorable new design, as well as some pretty Spring/Easter designs.
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Helpful Links:
If you use COE 90, be sure to shop Lori’s beautiful murrini and mille 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.

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.

For Tiny Doggie Bones and other beautiful torch-made COE 96 glass components, check out the Lunger’s Eleven11Glass website. 

 

 

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