June 21, 2024 • Dragonflies!

Glass friends, once again I’m so excited to talk about this week’s murrini! I’ve had this design in the works for some time and it has finally come to fruition! I couldn’t be happier with these Dragonflies and the project this week. Everything found in the project below is available this week.

First some Housekeeping notes: 
I usually work a week or two ahead as the process from creation to finished packaged product is about 10 days or so. So for this week and next week I’ll have lots of goodies. However, my Dad has had a rough week and I wasn’t able to be in the shop as much as usual, which means the 4th of July weekend I might not have anything new to offer, but I'll keep you posted.  Your patience (in requested murrini, the amount of murrini I’ll have to offer in the next few weeks, or an unexpected closure) is greatly appreciated. 

As a reminder, my murrini are COE 96 (Oceanside) and these new murrini will post tomorrow, June 22, at Noon Central Time.

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Now on to this week’s murrini:

Tack Fuse Dragonflies! 

There will be two colors of Dragonflies. When pulling the wings, keeping them consistent was a bit of a challenge. Lisa sorted all these by size and when she packaged things up she worked hard to make sure the size of the body fit the size of the wings. Categorized by the size of the wings, body and overall weight, there will be Small, Medium and Large 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 and this is what I mean by "small, medium and large". The blue wings run slightly smaller. 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!

I created a quick video to help explain how to perfectly cut your dragonfly murrini.

You can use 4 wings or 2 wings depending if it is a top view or a side view! These were lightly tack fused with a top temperature of 1310 with a 5 minute hold in my kilns. Always do a test tile if uncertain about the right temperature in your kiln.

Warm Tone Dragonfly Kit (Tack Fuse)

The Warm Tone Dragonfly Kits have opal bodies and transparent wings. The kits include 4 wings, 1 body, and 3 black stringers for the tail. 

Small Kits will be $18 (small size wings/body)
Medium Kits will be $22 (medium size wings/body)
Large Kits will be $26 (large size wings/body)

Cool Tone Dragonfly Kit (Tack Fuse)

The Cool Tone Dragonfly Kits have opal bodies and transparent wings. They are running slightly smaller than the Warm Tone Kits. Theses kits also include 4 wings, 1 body, and 3 black stringers for the tail.

Small Kits will be $17 (small size wings/body)
Medium Kits will be $20 (medium size wings/body)
Large Kits will be $24 (large size wings/body)
XL Kits will be $26 (XL size wings/body)

Philodendron Leaf

This is a remake of the recent Philodendron leaf. It is transparent with an opal vein. There are clear areas on the sides to create the look of a “split philodendron”. Loving how it fuses and it adds the perfect touch to floral scenes. They will be various sizes, but most are on the larger side. If your wheeled nippers open big enough, put the wheels on the widest part and snip! If your wheels don’t open big enough, you’ll need to switch to your Chipper Nipper. 1oz. for $18 which is 5-7 canes.

Flower Petal Variety Pack

This is the big mix of ALL the flowers in this week’s project! There are three Flat-End Daisy Petals the two Transparent Petals. All of these petals were created to be tack fused. The opal Flat-End Daisies fully fuse fine, just rounded. The Transparent Petals are best at just a tack to contour fuse. The transparent petals snip well with both the Chipper Nipper and wheeled nippers, however, the opal Flat-End Daisy Petals snip best with wheeled nippers. Each package is 1.5oz. and has two of each design (10 total canes) for $28.

Transparent Petal Duo

This is a duo with both of this week’s Transparent Petals. They are transparent with an opal tip. The designs of the tips transitioned during the pull and will have a variety of beautiful looks. The transparent colors are Caribbean and Amber. These snip well with both the Chipper Nipper and wheeled nippers. 1.5oz for $26. They are best at a tack fuse to keep the transparent color from spreading out too much which lightens the color and doesn't have as sharp of an edge.

The Transparent Petals will also be sold as singles (photos not shown) in 1.5oz. packages for $26.

Flat-End Daisy Petals
These versatile murrini petals can be used in many ways. Created to have the flat end up against a center dot or a circle of frit, the flowers you design can be as small or large as you want depending on the size of the middle. The larger the middle, the more petals you place around it, the bigger the flower. You’ll want to snip these with your wheeled nippers. They are all in 1.5oz packages for $26 and are packaged in a variety of ways:

Multi-size Flat-End Daisy Trio

Multi-size White Flat-End Daisy Petals

Multi-size Orange Flat-End Daisy Petals

Multi-size Yellow Flat-End Daisy Petals

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Now for the BEST part…putting all these beauties together for this week’s fabulous project!

This is a large piece. It is 12 inches tall and 10 inches wide. In the kiln I have this same exact size for the bottom layer, which was lightly dusted with clear powder to prevent bubbles in the full fuse. I will set this piece on top of it for an initial full fuse. I first sketched my idea and realized I needed to move it down some, hence the arrow. 

My first stage is to fully fuse on some of Joni’s Green Stringer that she pulled longer for this project. I want to be able to tack fuse my "jar" over the top of the stringer, so they need to be fully fused first. Also, with the stringer spreading/softening out after the initial full fuse, it will look “magnified” in the jar of water.

Lastly, I sprinkled the tiniest amount of frit at the bottom where the jar will sit and behind where the flowers are going to go. I sat it in the kiln over the prepared glass I had waiting and put it on for a somewhat slow full fuse. 

150>1150>30
350>1450>20
9999>950>2 hours
150>800>10
300>room temp

Feel free to use the bubble squeeze schedule that works best for you. This is just a suggestion that worked for me in my kilns.

Out of the kiln you can see the frit and stringer fused in perfectly. So I placed my 5mm clear glass over the top to draw out my mason jar.

I put some score lines at the top because I initially wanted to put clear stringers there to look like the threads of the mason jar, however…when the green flower stem stringers fused flat, they had just enough of a TINIEST hump that the jar does not rest perfectly flat. I will NOT risk stringers rolling during the fusing process, which could ruin the final project. So I put score lines that might still show up in a light tack fuse. (Spoiler alert...after fusing you can see the score lines still, but not as pronounced…still better than rolling stringers).

I snipped up my pieces and have them ready to start creating my flower arrangement. You can see that I have some pre-fused dots, both opal and transparent. Some of the dots I snipped in half with wheeled nippers for the daisies that will be from the side and the ones that are to look more like a Coneflower. Joni has a variety of pre-fused dots in her shop if you need some.

It’s getting close!

Here’s a close up shot of the flowers. I also put more stringer, from the top of the jar up, for filler and additional stems. Some of these dots were fully fused twisties I had made into dots then snipped in half.

After fiddling with the dragonfly I put this in the kiln for the SLOWEST of all firings in the history of glass fusing. Ha ha. Just kidding, but man, this has a huge cry factor so I took it slow. 

Here is a link to Oceanside’s Firing Schedules. Your firing schedule depends on how thick your project is and how many times pieces have been fired. But be conservative with your schedule if it has many layers. Slow up and slow down. My top temperature was 1310 with a 10 minute hold. Any hotter of a top temp in my kiln and the murrini will begin to round out quickly. 

This was in the kiln for two full days and I had no urge to peek at any point. I took no chances. Again, this is the firing schedule I used and feel free to use one that works best for you.

Probably one of my favorite pieces ever. Easy to make and so cheerful to look at. I’m not sure how I’m going to display it just yet, but I sure do love it.

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Hints on the Horizon
Next week: a smaller version of this week’s murrini in Lilac and Grape as well as a few remakes. :)

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Helpful Links:

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 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.