Glass Fusing Tutorial: Snowy Night Murrine Ornament
You will need:
| COE 90 | COE 96 |
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Step 1:
Start by cutting your sheet glass squares diagonally in half so you’re left with two triangles. Then, take one of the triangles and trace the outline onto your notecard; this will be the base for your stencil.
Step 2:
Starting at the bottom of your triangle outline, draw your stencil. This can be as simple or elaborate as you want and it will still look good! You can get fancy and draw a pine tree silhouette, or just do a jagged pointy line that looks like a mountain range. When you’re done, carefully cut out your stencil.
Step 3:
Cover the Aventurine Blue triangle in your glass adhesive. Align your stencil the way you want it, making sure to press down on any corners that might be sticking up. Make sure to place your triangle on a piece of paper or tray for easy cleanup of the powdered frit later.
Tip: if you are having trouble getting your stencil to stay completely down, you can use a small amount of watered-down Elmer’s glue instead of Glastac and it will have no effect on the finished piece.
Step 4:
Take your powdered frit and gently apply it over the exposed part of the Aventurine Blue triangle. We just put the frit in a small paper cup and carefully tap it to control the flow, but if you have a small strainer you want to dedicate to glass, that works even better. You want to put enough frit on that all the blue glass is covered – don’t worry if it looks uneven! The thicker the frit is, the more opaque your design will be, and thinner spots will show more of the blue background.
Step 5:
Remove the stencil by pulling it up and away from the frit, being very careful not to disturb your pattern. It’s okay if it looks like there are clumps or if some frit falls into the negative space when you remove your stencil! You can take a small paintbrush and brush the powder back in line, or leave it where it is and it will just look like more snow on your winter scene.
Step 6:
Take the clear sheet glass triangle and cover the bottom half in your glass adhesive. Then, take the Aventurine Blue triangle with the powdered frit and carefully put it on top, slightly offset so there is a small line of clear sheet glass exposed at the bottom for your border.
Step 7:
Time to decorate! Put white star murrine in the sky above your powdered frit design, then place your dots and murrine in a pattern at the bottom.
Step 8:
To make a hook to hang the ornament from, take two sticks of clear sheet glass, and place them underneath the Aventurine Blue triangle so that they’re resting against the clear triangle and sticking out from the tip diagonally. Then take two more pieces of clear sheet glass and lay them on top of the first two to create a “roof”, overlapping at the corners and peak.
Step 9:
Fire!
Kiln Schedule:
| Rate (degrees/hour) | Temperature | Soak (hold time) |
| 500°F/hour | 1200°F/650°C | 10 minutes |
| 300°F/hour | 1500°F/815°C | 10 minutes |
| As Fast As Possible | 900°F/480°C | 20 minutes |
| 150°F/hour | 700°F/370°C | 30 minutes |
More Suggestions:
- Try using our Zanfirico Cane as a border embellishment; Midnight Blue and French Vanilla (C101) looks great with these colors!
- Put a few white frit balls in the sky with the star murrine to look like smaller stars
