June 28, 2024 • Purple Dragonflies, Butterflies & Petals
It’s Friday again and just when I thought last week’s project was my favorite ever…I have an updated twist on this same idea that I love just as much. I also tried a few “experiments” on it that I want to share with you. This week’s pulls were mostly Purple Dragonflies and Petals, but I also have a few requested remakes as well. More on these in a bit.
Housekeeping notes:
It was another slow production week in the shop as I needed to spend more time with my parents. I’m sticking firmly to my philosophy of quality over quantity and family before murrini. Therefore, I’m going to close my shop over the Holiday Weekend, July 3-7, to catch up. I will reopen on Monday, July 8. As always, I appreciate your patience in all things.
Keep an eye out as there will be a fun little contest next weekend found only here on the blog and via your email. Stay tuned for more information next Friday, July 5.
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Let’s chat about the Murrini that will be available tomorrow, June 29, at NOON Central time. It's all Oceanside COE 96.
Tack Fuse Purple Dragonflies! 
I worked harder on this version to pull the wings consistent, and there are mostly medium and large size wings, however there will be a few packages of small and XL. The wings are a mix of transparent glass: Grape, Light Grape, Grey and Champagne. Like last week, Lisa sorted all these by size and the kits will again will be categorized by the size of the wings, body and overall weight. Each kit will include 4 wings, 1 body and 3 black stringers for the tail. One kit will make 16 Dragonflies!
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)
XL Kits will be $28 (XL size wings/body)
Here are the Purple Wings photographed by a dime for size reference because I think this helps us see what I mean by "small, medium, large and XL". Each kit will be as consistent as possible, but NOTE: there were once again several batches of wings made and each one has a different pattern. I recommend snipping AND creating with only ONE WING CANE at a time so your Dragonfly wings match each other in size, color, and pattern. (P.S. These are 2nds wings in the above photo).
If you missed it last week, here is the video to help explain how to perfectly cut your dragonfly murrini.
Multi-size Purple Teardrops
These sweet Purple Teardrops have Lilac Opal, Grape Transparent and Vanilla Cream in them. They are in 1oz. packages and will have a variety of colors and sizes. They can be used as petals, leaves, or any kind of design element, but in today’s project I have them grouped together to make larger flowers. They are just lovely tack fused to fully fused and can be snipped with wheeled nippers or the Chipper Nipper placed on the fattest part of the murrini. $18
Grape and Lilac Flat-End Petals
These Petals are stunning. The exterior is Grape transparent and the interior has a slightly transitioning design with Lilac Opal and varying designs of Vanilla Cream dots. Some will have a more rounded, softer opal end. When grouped around a dot to create a flower, these become something spectacular. Beautiful tack fused to fully fused. Wheeled nippers will work best placed right in the center of the flat sides. 1oz. for $19.
Tack Fuse Purple Butterflies
These beauties are best at a light tack fuse. Use two pieces placed together at the line to create a full butterfly, or just one murrini to show her from a side view. The best technique to snip butterflies is in the “Tips” section of the website. Using that technique of wheel placement when nipping, but following the technique in the video for perfectly proportioned pieces will be helpful with the butterflies. Sold in the smaller 1oz. packages this week. $19.
Tack Fuse Woodie
Little Woodie is the only bird this week, so he’s flyin’ solo! :) The birds snip best with wheeled nippers placed on the back and belly. He is a Tack Fuse murrini as he’ll become a little blob in a full fuse (see example below). Sold in 1oz. packages for $19.
Here he is tack fused on one of Mike LaChance’s XL COE 96 fusible bails with this week’s Ivy and some of Joni’s brown variegated and green variegated stringers.
Multi-size Tack Fuse Ladybugs
This is a requested remake of the sweet Ladybugs. They are best at a LIGHT TACK fuse (a fully fused version is show below and she rounds out and the black part of her head has a square appearance). Wheeled nippers or the Chipper nippers work great on her. This is a MULTI-Size package from large to tiny. 1.5oz. for $26.
Multi-size Tack Fuse Ivy
This is also another requested remake. The Ivy is also Multi-size from large to tiny. The veins in this design will be a mix of straight and curved. This is a versatile leaf with many uses. It snips well with both wheeled nippers and the Chipper Nipper placed on the fattest part (never fragile tip to top). It’s best at a tack fuse to retain the outer shape (see this week’s project), but a full fuse is shown below so you can see how it rounds out in hotter temperatures. 1.5oz. for $26.
SECONDS Multi-size Dragonfly Kit DUO
I did a test fuse of the seconds I had from last week’s Dragonflies. When looking at the design in the canes I thought they wouldn’t be nice, but when I tack fused two random pieces they were pretty darn beautiful!! I was excited because we ran out so quickly last week and now we have more to give those who didn't get a chance to get any last week. All parts of this kit are seconds. Take a look at the bodies…they are definitely swirly and “seconds” looking. Also the black stringer will have a small hole in the center. These are packaged with both a Warm Tone Dragonfly kit and a Cool Tone Dragonfly kit in the SAME package. They are various sized wings within the package and you won’t get an extra black stringer (only two).
Each kit will have the following:
8 Dragonfly Wings (4 Warm Tone and 4 Cool Tone)
2 Dragonfly Bodies (1Warm Tone and 1 Cool Tone)
4 Black Stringer Tails (with holes in the center…so the stringer is a second as well)
These are weighing around 2oz. for $26.
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This week’s murrini fully fused from the front.
Fully fused view from the back.
A fully fused version of the Grape and Lilac Flat-End Petal.
Here is the Dragonfly from last week fully fused so you can see how much it spreads out (forgot to show you this last week).
A fully fused version of the Purple Teardrop.
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Now on to the project!
I’m excited about this multi-media glass project. At 6 X 8.5 inches, it is smaller than last week’s project but the base was created exactly the same way. I won’t go over all the details again, but I used two pieces of Ivory glass together with Oceanside Pink and Vanilla Cream Opal frit and Grape Transparent frit sprinkled on top. I placed a few Fern and Amazon stringers, then fully fused together.
Once the first step was out of the kiln, I got my 5mm clear “Glass Jar” measured, cut, and ground to fit the space. If you need more details on how to do that see last week's blog if you missed it.
I knew I wanted to wrap twine around my jar, so I used 6 very thinly cut pieces of 1/32 fiber paper (two stacks of three) to hold open my 1/2 inch channel. This was a bit of an experiment as I was afraid the jar might slip during the fuse, however the glass was resting pretty solid on the fiber paper. I continued to design the bouquet with all the Purple elements. A Butterfly, the Teardrops and Grape Flat-End petals. As you can see above, I took a Grape fully fused Dot and snipped it in half (Joni will have Purple dots in her shop this week if you need them). At the upper part of the photo you can see the 1/2 dot is lying flat with several Grape Flat-end petals up against it. The 1/2 dot closer to the bottom I sat up on the “cut” side and put two Grape Flat-end petals up against it. I love them both! I also added the top layer of stems/stringer, this time it’s Joni’s Variegated Green Stringer which has multiple colors in it from light to dark, which gives the stems gorgeous depth.
A package of Purple Teardrops will have varying designs. Lisa separated them out by inner design to make sure each package had a variety.
The Grape Flat-end is really stunning. Some will be very pointed and dotted like these, others will have a slightly rounded opal inner design and have a softer look.
Here is a closeup of the Purple Dragonfly. The wings are all going to be slightly different and have Transparent Grape, Light Grape, Grey and Champagne glass in them.
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The sweet little Butterfly.
I also placed Ivy Leaves all along the stems. Because the stems were overlapping each other, I knew in the fuse, when things relaxed down, they’d move. So I wasn’t married to them being right up against the stems and just let it all move as it liked during the fusing process.
Also, like last week, I wanted to put a rim or “threads” around the top of the jar where the lid would screw on, but again wouldn’t risk stringer. Since I was experimenting on this project I decided to put some GlassTac glue at the top and sprinkle with clear powder. With my Exacto knife I made it into rows. You see two here, but I felt like those were too thick so I made them into three rows. Once I was done I did spray the top of them with hairspray just to help minimize movement in transporting it to the kiln and hopefully during the fuse. After fusing, it ended up being the look I was going for! Just a subtle hint of a rim.
Here it is fresh out of the kiln. Now, I took last week’s fusing schedule so slow it was in the kiln for two entire days. This time I sped things up a bit and tried this schedule (go slower if you don’t want to risk anything):
150>1150>30 (last time I only went 50 degrees per hour)
350>1310>15 minutes (held the top temp just a few extra minutes)
9999>950>5 hours
150>700>10
300>room temp
I washed it up and used a paperclip to push the fiber paper out of the channel.
Now time for the twine. This is the same “rope” I got at Michael’s and used in my Beach Buddy necklaces a few weeks ago. I started it through the channel leaving several inches out one side for making the final bow.
I went three times through the channel.
Here’s a peek of the twine in the channel (which we are going to cover up by moving the top layer over it). I moved the outer twine back in place over the top and tied a bow.
What can I say other than I’m absolutely in love with this. Keep an eye out for more in the future. When I create a new Dragonfly color, I’m going to make another version of this design per the request of Joni who wants to see an entire series!! I love the idea. Next up (in a few weeks from now)…Green Dragonflies!
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Hints on the Horizon
Next weekend I’ll be closed for the 4th of July but will have a fun contest that I’ll post here next Friday evening instead of a blog. It will also be in an email for those who are subscribed. :)
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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, 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.