June 14, 2024 • Beach and Birds
Happy Friday! Hope you’ve all had a great week. Thanks for your patience while my shop was closed last weekend. I can’t tell you how much fun was had in Nashville spending time with my brother, sister and cousins. Of the cousins, there are three girls and four boys. Needless to say we got a bit silly and decided to recreate one of our funniest family photos. I called Mom and she dug out the old photo so 50+ years we could make a new funny memory. 🤣 Our next “cousins weekend” is in the works …Yosemite 2026. Counting down the days.
Housekeeping notes:
Just a reminder for those who may be new, all my murrini are COE 96 and I’ll post these new items in my online shop on Saturday (tomorrow, June 15) at Noon Central time.
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So let’s talk murrini! This week’s theme is Beach and Birds and I have a NEW murrini…a Sea Shell! It will be in two colors, a lighter brown/almond color and PINK! The Pink shell is Oceanside Vanilla Cream and Pink, but also with Youghiogheny Pink, too. If by chance you are COE 90, Lori from Wilderness Glass has also made Sea Shells this week.
It’s nice to do one last grouping of summer fun before moving on to Fall and Christmas murrini in July.
Beach Buddies Mix
In this mix you’ll receive one each of the 8 designs. An orange/purple Starfish, Sand Dollar, Beach Bird, Jellyfish, Pink Shell, Almond Shell, and a Fish with a Tail for $28.
I know that most of you like the option of equal amounts of mixes to singles, but since I ran out of the Wedding Mix so quickly two week ago, this week I put most of these into a mix to give everyone the chance to try the new shells.
Here’s some details on each item:
The Starfish is created with Persimmon, Orange Opal with some transparent Purple. It is lovely tack fused to fully fused. It cuts well with the Chipper Nipper or Wheeled nippers.
The Sand Dollar is the same as past designs. It’s best at a tack fuse if you want it to look “as-is”. Fully fused it looks pretty as well, however sometimes the edges of the inner design are on or close to the edge giving it a striped look which you may or may not find desirable. See the fully fused sample below.
The Sandpiper bird is a light tack fuse item. It will not retain its outer shape in any temperature beyond a tack fuse. I do have a fully fused version of it below so you can see what happens. It snips best with the wheels of the nipper placed on the back and belly area.
The Jellyfish was created with Almond and Vanilla Cream, so when fully fused on blue there may be some dark reactions in some areas (see this week’s project) but is very faint and looks pretty cool. The wiggly legs of this Jelly are alternating VC and Almond, so when tack fused they look as-is. But fully fused the Almond becomes more transparent and the VC stands out more. Just something a little different and fun.
The Fish comes in two pieces, the body and the tail. A light tack fuse is best to keep his outer appearance, but a fully fused “rounded” version can be seen below. His colors are bright and gorgeous…he really stands out beautifully. Both parts snip well with either wheeled nippers or the Chipper nipper, but I’d start with the wheels first.
Lastly the NEW Sea Shells! I can’t believe I waited so long to try this design. They are a TACK FUSE item as the dainty scalloped top will round out quickly. A bit trickier to cut, I used both wheeled nippers and the Chipper Nipper, which both worked, but the trick is to not try to snip them too thin. 3mm is a good target size. I put the blades of the nippers on the flat bottom and the top of the scalloped top and snipped quick and fast. I had some mis-snips...but again, those can be tucked into scenes and still work great.
A note on the Pink Shells. Sometimes URO/Youghiogheny pulls lumpy and I don’t know why. I had to use a combination of Oceanside and Uro to have enough pink to make them. Like some of the other pink flowers and things I’ve made in the past, the exterior might not be aesthetically perfect, but they fuse perfect. So we’ll have to give the pink ones some grace and forgiveness on their exterior appearance. However, rest assured they are annealed and tested and have no tension around them at all under polarizing filters. Just a bit bumpy here and there on the outside.
Note about Singles: Some of the designs from the mix will be available as singles in 1oz. packages, but there will only be a couple of each. Be sure to take note of the title of them. Lisa packed the mixes using the “normal” sizes first, so the single packages may be on the small side or have a big and small mix inside (Multi-sizes). Also, be prepared for them to be snatched out of your cart because some of them only have 2 or three packages available. However, like I mentioned earlier, I should have plenty of mixes for everyone this week.
Mama and Papa Cardinal Duo
Sold as a duo this week, these sweet Cardinals are best at a light tack fuse to retain their outer shape. The birds snip beautifully with wheeled nippers. These will be sold in the smaller 1oz. packages for $19, which is 3 two-inch canes of each design (6 total).
Small Seashell Duo
These adorable Sea Shells are on the smaller side and are a TACK FUSE murrini because the dainty scalloped top will round out quickly. A bit trickier to cut, I used both wheels and the Chipper nipper, which both worked, but the trick is to not try to snip them too thin. 3mm is a good target size. I put the blades of the nippers on the flat bottom and on the top of the scalloped top and snipped quick and fast. They are packaged in a 1oz. package which is 3 to 4 of each color AND ARE MOSTLY ON THE SMALLER SIDE. If an extra cane was needed for weight, we tried to make it a pink one. $19.
Multi-size Fancy Hearts
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 mixed package of hearts but they will be mostly larger and tinier with a few small and medium sized ones. They snip easily with wheeled nippers or the Chipper Nipper with the blades placed on either side of the widest part (never fragile tip to top). Sold in 1oz. packages for $18.
SECONDS Beach Buddies
I had enough SECONDS of each design to offer them as a mix! What makes them seconds? This means the design is either slightly before or after the best part of the pull. So some may have a design that is not quite fully formed or is starting to get a bit distorted. If the design looks perfect on the inside, there might be a chip or scratch on the exterior. Some (mostly the Jellyfish) may also have a slight pin hole. I didn’t have any seconds Fish Tails…so they’ll be perfect little hearts just like the other mix. ;) These larger 1.5oz. packages will have one each of the 8 designs and maybe an extra or two if more weight was needed. $20.
This week’s murrini fully fused from the front. (Sorry not shot from the back this week. Sometimes a full fuse in my little kiln causes the thin fire paper to leave a residue on the back.)
A note about the fully fused Sand Dollar. Sometimes if the inner design is on or near the edge of the murrini it will have a line going down the side in a full fuse. You can see the one on the left has lines all around and the one on the right has one or two faint lines. If you are concerned about this happening, a light tack fuse is recommended as it will not spread out and accentuate the sides like a full fuse does.
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Beach Projects:
My torch-working buddy, Mike LaChance, and I got together on this week’s projects. He had the cool idea of making bracelet blanks/kits AND he created some fun larger necklace blanks without a loop, but instead made a center opening for threading a little rope through it. They are FUN! I’m not the best at designing jewelry, so I can’t wait to see what you all create. In the meantime, this is what I came up with.
Let’s start with the larger necklace designs. Mike created several colors and I used them ALL! He already had sand embedded in them and in most cases I left them as-is, but added a bit more on the one on the top left. 
I snipped my murrini as thin as I could. In doing this, I always have some mis-snips because I wasn't able to get them as thin as I thought. However, those just tuck behind something and are totally usable.
Here’s one getting ready to go into the kiln and you can see it a little bit more from the side. Since these are going in for a light tack fuse only, we don’t want the murrini to be standing up too tall. Note that I put a bit of fiber paper in the hole so it didn’t close up when fusing on the murrini.
On this fella I put a few little pieces of Joni’s green stringer as seaweed. I put longer pieces of her stringer in the torch just to make the ends rounded then snipped them short. I also added a bit of transparent amber frit as rocks. It’s best to add your fiber paper BEFORE you decorate the blanks so you don’t disturb your creations (this is a note-to-self...ha ha).
I also used one of Mikes “ocean” blanks for my birds but used the white part as clouds instead of the ocean bottom. He can make them however you want (sand/no sand). I used some of Joni’s brown/black variegated stringer as branches and added leaves. Mike’s blanks sit nice and flat so the murrini sits still for you while decorating AND fusing. Remember…if an element is trying to slide off the side or off of another element (unless you are holding it on with glue), then when the glue burns off in the kiln, the murrini will tend to slide back to where it wanted to go before you put the glue on it. Therefore, make sure your stringer and murrini are laying solid BEFORE you tack them with glue.
Adorbs.
Now…he made a BRACELET kit!
He has slightly larger bracelet blanks that held one or two of my beach murrini, then smaller ones that held just one murrini. I added my own frit to make a beach floor, but it would have been just as cute without it. He then has beautiful “donut” beads that are used as filler on the bracelet as well. SO many fun options. You can also add in other kinds of beads.
Here are ALL my “Mike Goodies” in the kiln ready for a tack fuse. You can see the difference here in the size of the upper necklace blanks compared to the lower bracelet blanks. All are fitted with fiber paper rolled up in the holes and in for a light tack fuse with a top temp of 1305 with NO hold and a 3 hour anneal just because some of these are pretty thick. Not a single thing moved during the fusing process and they turned out perfect.
I removed the fiber and washed them well. This is the first time I’ve ever made a bracelet, and I bought “stretchy fishing line” from Micheals (I’m sure Hobby Lobby has it too) called Stretch Magic Bead and Jewelry Cord. I strung all my pieces and knotted it per the instruction on the packaging.
It is ADORABLE! I need it to be slightly larger, so I’m going to add a little bit more to it, perhaps some kind of little jewel between each of Mike’s “donut” beads. But the stretchy cord is cool. Pretty happy for a bracelet first-timer.
Mike is going to sell the bracelet pieces as a full "Bracelet Kit" as seen above, and then as just the blanks and donuts separately. These beauties will be available on his website later this weekend.
Also, I used natural looking “Hemp Cording” to make my necklaces. I thought it looked like rope from a fishing boat and went well with the beach theme. (I got this in the same section of Michaels that I got the Magic Stretchy Cord.) I cut a piece that would go over my head and with the two loose ends together I slipped it through my Necklace design and tied a knot big enough that it wouldn’t go back through the hole of the glass. Mike had the idea of a bead or one of the “donuts” to be between the glass and the knot. SO MANY POSSIBILITIES.
The loose end of the cord mimics the Jellyfish! I love it.
Beach Sun-catcher
I wanted to show off the little Sandpipers and try the Jellyfish and seaweed fully fused, so I created this fun little sun-catcher.
Using my usual Oceanside blue/white swirl as the base, I layered it with a piece of transparent blue because I wanted the swirl in the glass to show through as the movement in the water. I cut a small piece of clear for the top as I wanted the sky to remain the same but needed the entire piece to be 6mm in the full fuse.
I then added my embellishments. The sand was a mix I had previously made, but it must have had quite a bit of Vanilla Cream in it as the fully fused version had a dark reaction. I also added two Jellies and some seaweed. I had a little bit of ultra thin stringer in a tub left over from a pull, but it had a bit of orange to it and I thought it may add a nice color to the project. I put the ends of it in a torch to ball it up. I’m curious what color it was because it did have a bit of a reaction with the blue. Very surprising but looks like shadows, so I love it!
After the full fuse, I put my top layer on that I'll be tack fusing. First I added some frit over some GlassTac glue for the land, which was the same frit as the ocean floor (I knew it wouldn’t change/react in a tack fuse) and painted on some bird legs with Easy Fire black enamel paint (left over from my Cheryl Chapman class). I put my birds over the paint once it had dried, then placed my fish with their tails, sea shells, sand dollar and starfish purposely overlapping some of my pre-fused background to give it some depth. I put it in the kiln and slipped one of Mike’s Clear Fusible Bails underneath (with fiber in the hole) and ran a light tack fuse with a top temp of 1305 with no hold and a 3 hour anneal.
A sweet little sun-catcher for any beach lover.
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Hints on the Horizon
Next week STAY TUNED…I’m going to have another NEW design that you are going to LOVE!
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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 COE 96 handcrafted Bails and fabulous Necklace and Bracelet Blanks, find his unique work at Mike’s Innovative Glass.
If you use COE 90, be sure to shop Lori’s beautiful murrini and mille options found at Wilderness Glass.