July 4, 2025 • The Reason for the Season ‘25

Happy 4th of July! Wishing you and your family a blessed holiday!

Like last year when I did the Nativity, I have LOTS of murrini, but it is all created to be a kit. In some sections of today’s blog, I have copied some information from last year as the same techniques apply. There are 20 pieces to the mix and I’ll explain how they all go together. This year the addition of a black sheep is also included. Last year and this year have similar projects, but  you can still find all the details of last year’s project in the August 2, 2024 blog post. This year I wanted to create a scene with more of a 3D look, and all the details are later in this blog.

Also this week I have a huge 5oz. mix of Fall SECONDS that have been accumulating in the shop. Lisa has them packaged up beautifully and are half the price of regular murrini…which is even a bit less than I usually charge for seconds. 😉. 

I’ll have more Christmas on July 19. So stay tuned for that big mix coming very soon. I’ll have some NEW murrini, too!

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Housekeeping notes: This week’s murrini will be available tomorrow, Saturday, July 5, at Noon Central Time. I'm COE 96 only and all this week's murrini were created with Oceanside fusible glass.

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This week’s Murrini:

The Nativity Kit

This mix will come in two packages and has 19 full canes and 1 half cane (half cane not pictured). 

Mary (2 canes)
Joseph (2 canes)
Baby Jesus (the half cane)
Shepherd (2 canes)
Sheep (1 white and 1 black cane)
3 Wise Men (6 canes)
Star (1 cane)
Angel (4 canes)

These kits are weighing in at two weights: 3.2+oz and 3.8+oz and will be $60 and $65. The kits weighing less will have slightly smaller sized canes, but will still have 20 pieces. In the image below, see the dime for size reference. The smaller canes are on top and the larger ones are in the packages. You can see they are only slightly smaller. 

I recommend a tack fuse for this mix. The Bethlehem Star can be fully fused, but the other canes have outer shapes that are best lightly tacked to keep the design intact. You can get 16 pieces from each cane, which will give you 16 nativities. I recommend snipping the cane in half, then those halves in half, then those halves in half and then halves once more as shown in the photo below. 

The above images are how I snipped Mary’s body into 16 pieces. This way the sizes will be more predictable and uniform. 

 

This is from last year’s blog. I had laid out my canes from the kit. I snipped my canes down into 16 pieces each. The bottom portion of the above photo is to show how all your pieces fit together. Mary and Joseph are looking down on baby Jesus. Note the back of their heads are a continuance of their body and their faces are the white part. Next you’ll see the Angel has her head, body and two wings, the Star, the Wise Men (heads and bodies), the Shepherd (head and body) and his little Sheep (there is a black sheep in this year’s kit that is not shown here).

Note that Baby Jesus is a HALF cane because He is a half circle. Snip your cane into 8 equal parts, then with wheeled nippers you’ll snip each circle in half to make 16 half circles.

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Some of the Nativity murrini will also be sold as singles, duo and mixes.

Bethlehem Star

These beautiful Bethlehem Stars are great tack fused to fully fused.  Wheeled nippers or the Chipper Nipper will work great. If tack fusing, I like them sliced nice and thin. 

Little Black and White Sheep DUO (and black singles)

These cutie patootie Sheep are perfect in the Nativity or other outdoor scenes. They will be sold as a duo with both white and black sheep, and then I had a few remaining black sheep that will be a single variation. The black sheep singles are on the smaller side. The sheep are best at a light tack fuse so you don’t lose the frilly outer shape. Wheeled nippers work best with one blade on the top hump and one blade resting evenly on the two bottom humps. Sizes may vary in each package.

Angel Kits

The Angel kits will have 2 heads, 2 bodies and 4 wings. I prefer wheeled nippers on these as well as a tack to contour fuse. This kit should make approximately 32 angels. You can also put the body horizontal with just one wing on top to show her flying from the side. Sizes of heads, wings and bodies will vary from package to package.

Angel WingsI also pulled extra angel wings and they will be sold as singles. There will be two variations at checkout. One will be a larger size and then a smaller size. Check out the dime for size reference on the two sizes available.

Wisemen and Shepherd Heads
I was asked if I could just sell the Wisemen and Shepherds separately. I didn’t have enough bodies to make kits, but had some extra heads. You can easily make a body from a triangle shaped piece of glass and paint it or add tiny dots, then just add the intricate head murrini. I used Oceanside Orange, Flame and Dark Blue glass for the wisemen this year and Chocolate for the shepherd if you’d like to try to color match your body with the heads. Each 1oz. package will have 8 canes (two of each color of Wisemen and the Shepherd). Sizes will vary in each package.

Mary and Joseph Heads
Similar to the Wisemen and Shepherds, I have extra Mary and Joseph heads. If you would like to make your own body, but add the murrini head, I used Oceanside Mauve for Mary and Paynes Grey for Joseph this year. These 1.3oz. packages will have 4 Mary canes and 4 Joseph canes. Sizes will vary in each package.

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Tests

Here is a photo of this week’s murrini fully fused. As you can see, the star is fabulous, but the other murrini round out quite a bit. 

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SECONDS

Giant Fall SECONDS Mix

This 5+oz mix is full of fall favorites! There are approximately 26 canes in each package. You’ll receive a pumpkin, lemon wedge, acorn, candy corn, red mushroom, a mix of summer and fall leaves, a butterfly, almond flat-end daisy petal, and a cardinal. Most packages contain a pinecone, but for those that don’t, there will be a brown mushroom instead. These will be priced at $45 this week which is 50% of regular priced murrini. What makes these seconds you ask? Seconds are murrini either before or after the best part of the pull (design wise) or they have a small pinhole inside or ding/chip/inclusion on the exterior. These are really lovely seconds.❤️
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Nativity Project 2025: 

First I started with a 3mm black 5X6” and 3mm clear 5X6” piece of glass. 

I dusted clear powder between the two pieces and fully fused them with a Bethlehem Star near the top. This part was fully fused because I love the star when it melts into a background. The reason I put clear on top of the black is so the outer clear of the star will blend in perfectly. If the clear star was on a color it would put a visibly darker circle around the star and will be very obvious where it melted into the glass. With clear, it’s perfect! I also sprinkled on some Almond fine frit as little stars in the upper sky.

Here it is fully fused! Perfect.

 

Next I used some strips of scrap glass to make my little town of Bethlehem. (Hey! That should be a song 🤣). I used small pieces for windows and doors. This will go in for a tack fuse.

Next I had two small pieces of 3mm clear that I put my wisemen on and my shepherd and sheep. I sprinkled dark amber transparent frit on the bottom. 

I made a template (approx 2X2”) and cut out a stable on brown streaky glass and then again on 3mm clear adding about 1/2inch to the bottom for my frit to be added.

 

After putting my streaky glass over the clear glass, I then placed Mary and Joseph near the bottom of the stable. I used wheeled nippers to snip out a little manger. I added thin strips of Chocolate glass as the sides and top to the shelter. Finally I added the frit at the bottom over the clear section.

 

I made a few adjustments before I tack fused these pieces. First I added an angel above the city. I also added another angel (shown from the side) over Mary and Joseph.  I snuggled my little half circle (baby Jesus) on top of the manger, and added black noodles to finish off the roof of the stable.

I cut a 6 X .5 strip of 3mm clear glass and sprinkled it with dark amber frit for the front part of my finished piece. I wasn’t sure if I was going to put frit or hay on the base of the piece, but knew I would need something to hold it in place.

Note: I added a staff to my shepherd. A video on how to make his little shepherd’s hook can be found in my TIPs/Tutorial section titled “How to make Sophie the Cat’s Tail”. It’s the same technique using either a torch or candle.

After the tack fuse, I curved each piece so they would stand up on their own. (You don’t see the stable here as I left it flat to make it unique. To make the stable stand, I just glued a little 1/2 inch square of clear to the back of it like a tiny easel.)

When these pieces finished slumping, I put the wisemen and shepherd scenes on my Taurus saw to remove the excess clear around the murrini. Next time I’ll do this before the slump so the top of the piece could get fire polished. 

Baby Jesus was placed on the lightest part of my background glass (should have chosen a darker area) so I used some gold paint my friend Janice told me about, to give him a glowing halo. This paint can be heated to become permanent. I just let it dry naturally. I haven’t experimented with it too much, but it has great potential for future projects!

I wanted a project that lit up at night, preferably one that ran off a battery so it could be placed anywhere. I purchased this base off of Amazon. It’s OK but is VERY bright and the brightness isn’t adjustable. But I do like the fact it can run off a battery and has a handy on/off switch on the front. 

I placed all my pieces on the base and put a tiny dot of Gorilla Glue at the end of each piece (just enough to hold it still, but removable with an X-acto knife). I let those dry and then I placed frit all around my pieces. I wasn’t sure if I wanted frit or hay. The little light has a bit of a lip that is holding the frit in nicely, but has the potential to be messy if bumped. In retrospect, I’d have only put about 1/4 inch of frit underneath my nativity pieces instead of a half inch, but wanted the option of putting hay there and knew they’d need to be a bit elevated. If I were going to go with just the frit, I’d definitely take down the frit at the base of each element and then cover the base with a light smear of glue and make the loose frit more permanent. I also feel the white base is somewhat distracting, so I put a little black cloth around the front to cover it, which worked well.

It’s so hard to get a good photo of black glass that isn’t reflecting everything, so I waited until night and took some photos with it unlit (left) and lit (right). I love it lit because the background town comes alive. I also like that the pieces are curved so when you view it more from the side you get a different view of the pieces. 

Here it is with hay instead of frit, unlit and lit. I love having the option, but the hay is definitely cuter when the light is off. But a fun experiment for sure. I’d love to hear if you all have other ideas, too!

 

If you are new to my blog and projects, this is the Nativity 2024 Project.

Click here for the link to the instructions for the 2024 Nativity project. 

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Hints on the Horizon: My next sale will be July 19. I’ll have more Christmas fun as well as two NEW murrini! Stay tuned!

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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.

For beautiful COE 96 Twisties, check out Sherry's lovely work at Love•Peace•Create•Shop.

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.