March 30, 2024 • The BIG JOY of TINIES!
Well hello again! Whew...let me tell you how much I appreciate you for your patience while I took most of March off. LOTS of great things happened. We had a family vacation in Colorado. One last chance to hit the slopes before spring. Guy and I enjoyed a week alone in Snowmass, then joined Guy's brother and his beautiful family for another week in Steamboat. Boy...did we ever get a bunch of snow.
I didn't ski this day...so I joined the weary ones for lunch (being all toasty warm with my fuzzy hat and hot chocolate).
Then for my birthday weekend, we took off again to head to Nashville so I could spend the weekend with my sister's beautiful family squeezing on my new great nephew Cavitt. He's so precious I can't even begin to put him into words. 
Between our trips I did actually work! Ha ha! Before I left for Colorado I had pulled all the tinies and left them for Lisa to clean and chop. She didn't quit after doing them (thank the Lord) but she sure was glad to see me pulling larger cane when I got home. I like to be a week ahead when possible, so being closed gave me the opportunity to do just that. Thanks again from the bottom of my heart.
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So...on to chatting about TINY Murrini!!
I pull tinies once a year. They are quite labor intensive, so the timing needs to be good for everyone involved. The best way to describe the size is I get about 4 tiny canes for about one regular size cane. Four times the pulling, four times the cleaning, and four times the cutting. You get the idea. ;) They are a really great glass embellishment to have on hand. You can use them in micro mosaics (fused or not fused) or for creating small pieces. They are also perfect for when you have just a small space that needs a little something. I did anneal them even though they wouldn't have needed it, but the ends were a bit larger and I just wanted to make sure they were perfect for every use.
BONUS! This week, if you order a TINY Twelve Design Mix, your goodie bag will have a larger version of each design in it!
Tiny Twelve Design Mix
This is the "Big" mix of Tinies. Twelve designs total with leaves, flowers, and shapes. All Oceanside glass, these beauties snip like a dream. Each two-inch long cane can be snipped down into 40+ 1mm slices. The leaves may need to be a bit larger to snip best, but if using sharp wheeled nippers, you'll get some really nice cuts. Each package will have four canes of each design (48 total canes) and when snipped down small, you are looking at well over 1,500 1mm slices! In some cases you'll need longer ones (depending on your project) and obviously won't have that many pieces. Each package is 1.5oz+ for $32.
Here's my tissue I had while I was creating my samples. This is one cane of each design (there are 13 piles here, but the white daisy has a transitioning center from black to yellow, so I had different versions going here) and I also had used some before snapping this pic.
The rest of the mixes sold this week are what was remaining after I had the "Big" mix completed. These are solid colors, duos or trios and are only ONE OUNCE each. These are $20 per package.
TINIES • Hearts, Teardrops, and Ripples
TINIES • Blue Ripple Petals
TINIES • Slender Olive Leaves
The Olive colored slender leaves are shown with a dime. Their length makes them a bit larger than the rest of the tinies.
TINIES • Green Ombre Leaves
TINIES • Orange Dreamsicles
TINIES • Blossom Trio
TINIES • Daisy Trio
This is a good picture to show you the white daisy and the yellow daisy both have transitioning centers.
TINIES • Tulip, Daisy, and Petal Trio
This Trio has some tiny Sunflower Flat-end Petals and Tulips that I had saved from earlier in the season. They make the most beautiful mix with the red daisies.
TINIES • SECONDS Bird Duo
Here we have some Cardinals and Grey Bird tinies that are SECONDS since they are from the end of the pull. 1oz is $15.
Projects this week:
I didn't create too many samples this week as I was working on next week's sample which is SO COOL. The tinies kinda speak for themselves, however, I did want you to see a few fun items using them. I'll also pull a few photos from when I did tinies last year, so you can see them in a micro mosaic design taught to me by Jennifer Bevan. More on this sweet lady in a minute.
The above underlying black circle was easily created by taking two 3/4inch squares of 3mm black (stacked and turned opposite of each other) and fully fusing. This makes a perfectly round big "button" that I flipped over and had a perfect flat surface for the tinies. Tinies were placed on the black surface and this look was achieved with a tack fuse - top temp at 1305 with no hold.
'Tis the Easter Season, so I also made some crosses. I tried some with a 2mm base of clear for extra support since my crosses were made with pieces. Then a few I made by just snuggling the side of the arms of the cross to the middle and strategically placing tinies where the two came together for support. I like the ones without the base underneath better, but they are a bit fragile. Perfect to tack on another project tho!
I also used one of Mike's Open Bails. They snuggled in tightly and I took them to 1305 with a 10 minute hold. Perfect! I was feeling symmetrical. :). I'll slip a little piece of silk ribbon through the top for a necklace. Find where to buy these open bails at the bottom of the blog.
Here's the lineup of all my projects. 
The middle cross is clear medium frit placed in a cross mold with tinies gently placed on top and lightly tacked. Pretty but not real functional as far as jewelry as it has rough edges, but would make a fun ornament.
This is a piece created by Jennifer Bevan with last year's tinies. A wonderfully talented mosaic artist. She isn't teaching at the moment, but does have these beautiful bezels in her shop.
This is a piece I made after Jennifer's class, mixing regular size murrini in with tinies.
So I hope you can see how perfect these little tinies can be in your repertoire of glass goodies.
Hints on the Horizon
Oh. My. Word. Y'all...next week is Hippie Week. I can't wait for you to see these! My project is in the kiln now and it is on SLOW MO to make sure nothing happens to it!
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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 fusible bails, find his unique work at Mike’s Innovative Glass.
If you are looking for quality metal bezels, shop Jennifer Bevan's store.
If you use COE 90, be sure to shop Lori’s beautiful murrini options found at Wilderness Glass.