June 20, 2025 • Fall Fun at the Farmers Market
Hello again and thanks so much for stopping by. 🤗 I had the BEST time creating these Fall murrini and the project was a hoot to make. I know we need to be a season ahead for those who have upcoming shows, so I’m hoping this fun variety will get you started! I did make up some BIG mixes, but they were weighing in at over 2oz. and I was afraid that would be too much for some, so there will be a few more singles and duos this week. All of this week’s murrini are in this one project and for most of the murrini, a tack fuse will be the recommended temperature so they maintain their exterior shape.
Oh Fall…I can’t wait to see you again! 🍁🍂🍄
Housekeeping Notes:
All of my murrini are COE 96. I will have these on sale tomorrow, Saturday, June 21 at NOON Central time. Murrini is sold in 2” long canes and each cane can be snipped down into sixteen 3mm slices. Tips on positioning your nippers and other snipping techniques can be found in the TIPS section of my website. Most murrini will be sold in 1oz. packages.
This week’s murrini
The Big Fall Mix
In this mix you’ll receive one each of the 11 designs: A Pumpkin, Candy Corn, Red Mushroom, Brown Mushroom, Almond Flat-end Daisy Petal, Butterfly, Sunflower Daisy, Acorn, Pine Cone, Transparent Ombré Daisy and matching Ombré Leaf. The two daisies are beautiful fused from a tack to full fuse. I highly recommend a tack fuse for the other remaining murrini in this mix. A fully fused sample is shown later in the blog so you can see how they spread out.
Candy Corn/Pumpkin Duo (and as singles)
These two cuties are going to be sold as a DUO and as SINGLES. These are the same design I’ve had for years and they are wonderful to create with. You’ll find the duo and singles under the same listing on my website. The Pumpkin Singles are a bit heavier and will be packaged in 1.3+oz. packages in either 6-8 Small to Med. sized canes or 5 Med. to Lg. canes.
For the Candy Corn, keep your nipper toward the fattest part of the cane (about between the orange and yellow junction) and it is easier for me when I snip the cane in half, then snip all the halves in half, until I have 16 equal pieces. Make sure your nippers are sharp!
Fall Monarch
The warmer colors in this butterfly fuse into something quite lovely! If you are new to snipping butterfly wings, I do have a tutorial for cutting them in my TIPS section of my website.
Transparent Fall Ombré Daisy/Leaf Duo
I make these every year and when I pull them I get just as excited as I did the first time. The daisy is spectacular tack to fully fused or really cool FLIP and FUSED (see tutorial for F&F in the TIPS section). The matching leaf is best at a tack/contour fuse. They’ll be sold as a DUO and individually as well within the same listing.
Here is a sample of the daisy fully fused. You can see all the transitioning colors of Bronze, Red, Orange and Yellow.
Mushroom DUO
Can’t love these mushrooms enough. I sometimes will go back to check my notes and I didn’t realize how many years I’ve been making these in both of these colors. They are a tack fuse for sure. If not, you’ll lose the look of the stem, but most importantly, the mushrooms with a 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. 😉
Sunflower Daisy
Now this adorable daisy can be tacked or fully fused. There are 9 petals around the dotted center that are close together and look a bit more like sunflower than a daisy. These are also wonderful Flip and Fused to make them bloom out and become much bigger.
Multi-size Rippled Sunflower Fields
So similar to the Sunflower Daisy, they have an identical center, but instead of individual petals we have the rippled outside. This again is a tack fuse murrini unless you are wanting it to become a circle with the dark center (which can be cool if that is the look you are going for!). These will be a mix of tiny to large so you can make your scene look as if flowers are in the foreground and the background. Lots of fun options. These are also wonderful nipped and put into a mosaic piece.
Almond Flat-end Daisy Petals
If you are looking to create a big beautiful daisy, this is your murrini! The flat end of the murrini will rest around the outside of a circle dot (of any size or color). They are great tack fused to fully fused. Wheels nippers are best here with the nipper blades directly in the center. For more even cuts and less “cupping”, try snipping in half, then each half in half until you have 16 equal pieces. I used Almond as it will blend beautifully with all your fall colors.
Pine Cone/Acorn DUO (and as singles)
This adorable DUO is back! These cuties will add an adorable touch to your Fall or Winter outdoor scene! A tack fuse is best with these as well. They will also be sold as singles as an option when you click on the listing.
Apples (with leaves)
Whether making a gift for a teacher or a fall scene with an apple tree, these cuties are ready for you! A light tack fuse is best to keep the shape of the apple. In a full fuse (see sample below) it is still cute but the rounded look could also be a tomato! I tried to pull these consistently on the Medium to Large side, but there are a few smaller ones. They'll be packaged by Small size (5-6 Apples/Leaves) and then a mix of M-L (4 Apples/Leaves). This way sizes won’t vary dramatically in each package. Each Apple will come with a tiny leaf.
Cardinals
Cardinals have flown back and are cute as ever and are also a tack fuse murrini.
SECONDS
SECONDS Sunflower Ripple Petal
I hated to call these seconds as the only thing that makes them different are the center dots are smaller and some of the tinies may have no center color at all. However, they still make an adorable sunflower field. A light tack fuse is required if you want to keep the frilly exterior intact.
Tiny Red Mushrooms
Tiny mushrooms!!! They are SO stinking cute and USEFUL! The dots may be minimal (or gone), but the shape is still there. If you are looking for a tiny accent (even underneath a bigger version) these little guys will be for you. They are easy to snip thin, so you should be able to get more than 16 slices from each cane.
Fully Fused Test Pieces
This is a good way to show you the changes that happen when they are fully fused. Some are wonderful, others change dramatically.
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The Farmers Market Project
The AI design program I use to help generate a photo from my ideas and keywords had a little trouble giving me exactly what I was looking for this time, but it did help me some, especially with the construction of the wheelbarrow and back end of the truck!
My underlying piece is 3mm Chocolate measuring approximately 9X7.5. The Almond glass on top is 8X6.5. I drew out my idea with a sharpie.
Next I bent a black noodle, in my torch, into this simple shape and then snipped this down into two pieces that created the legs of the wheelbarrow.
I cut a round black circle, then placed my bent noodles over it, tacking it down with superglue. Basically the black noodle is a V shape and a loose S shape. The V went down first, then the S went over the wheel and top of the V.
I also made the back end of the truck, the window, and front tires. I want these to become flat from the initial full fuse because I’ll want to layer other pieces over the top of them. I also dusted on some different colors of powder (Orange, Sunflower and White) to give the sky a fall sunrise (those darn Farmers Markets start too early for me!).
I had some mushroom miss-snips that I wanted to be flat, too, so they can show through the slats in the crate. I also sprinkled on just a hint of medium transparent amber shades of frit on the ground just for an “idea” of a road or parking lot. I popped this piece in the kiln for a full fuse, but went slow on the way up 150 dpi and had dusted the underlying Chocolate with clear powder to help reduce bubbles.
Here we are! We're off to a great start! Now to cut the pieces to go over the top of the fully fused pieces.
I re-drew my idea again to help me with cutting out the next pieces. The sign that will be over the truck is from an Oceanside piece I had that is a brown/white swirl. Note the thin pieces are as thin as I could score and break (maybe 3-4mm) and then turned on their sides showing the INSIDE of the glass which reveals the layers…which is super cool.
First came the wheelbarrow with a rim at the top. The addition of the rim will allow the apples to slide underneath it and they’ll look more like they are inside the wheelbarrow. Also I cut two of the brown/white swirl glass pieces for the crate leaving a space so you can see the mushrooms inside that we fully fused first.
Next I placed my apples and leaves, with the mushrooms and the back end of the truck (wheels, bumper, sides and taillights).
Here we are with all the pieces on. We’ve got the butterfly in the upper left, some of Joni’s variegated brown stringer (I pulled in my torch to thin the tips) as the branches (she pulled some for those who might need more…and honestly they are a “must” for your glass toolbox). The Cardinal is sitting amongst the leaves, pine cones and acorns. There is a candy corn on the sign which I’ll move for the final piece (see it on the blue flower pot next) so my words “Farmers Market” could be bigger. I also changed out the taillights to be clear instead of black (Lisa’s idea…which was what it needed). In the distance you can see a sunflower field from the Rippled Sunflowers. Sunflower Daisies decorate the wheelbarrow and one is a "bumper sticker". There’s a big beautiful daisy in the back of the truck as well. Little ombre flowers, acorns and leaves add the final touches near the ground.
The black paint I used is Easy Fire Enamel that I buy from Cheryl Chapman’s page. I mixed the powder with clove oil so it’s ultra smooth and dries slow so I have lots of time to work with it.
Ta Da! The final piece tack fused. For the tack fuse I did go extra slow. 150 dph on the way up AND the way down, with a 6 hour anneal. On the way down I was sure to hold it at 800 for 15 minutes during that cool down strain point. I wanted this to be perfect and no need to rush when you’ve put so much work into a piece! I don’t think I could love this more.
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Hints on the Horizon: My next sale will be July 5. I’ll have the Full Nativity again this year!! Also, I’ll have a giant 5oz. mix of some past seconds.
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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.