Marbles

So, i've always had this fascination with marbles. Over the years i've put them in jars and bowls and enjoyed how they look there. Maybe a year ago I tried my hand at making one....well actually 3 but who's counting. It was VERY difficult for me. They were very small, misshapen and not quite that pretty but "I" made them so I was thrilled. But with it being so hard I got rid of my book and marble mold. Figuring I would just stick to beads........ A quick look at them:

yea, pretty crappy and very tiny. SO, go forward and I've decided to try it again after finding a youtube video. She made it look SO easy. I wish I could find the video again, it was a woman making a marble at a show and a little boy was watching. She inspired me to try it again and i'm SO glad I did. Not that my marbles are much better, although they are, but she made it look easy enough to try again! So, I first started with soft glass again since its what I'm used to working with. Here is some results:

First a group shot......the good,the bad and the ugly!! :) then some I really like looking at. I've been carrying some around in my pocket, taking them out to admire. So, I decided to give boro a try. Why not, I had enjoyed making the boro chains from Pipyrs tutorial, why not marbles right? Other than it taking SO much longer, it was great! So I have decided to continue with boro for marbles. Yea, I made a pandora bead just for the heck of it but it certainly didn't come out as nice as the marbles did!! The marbles stand in the pics is soft glass.....I need to make one with boro and not so colorful :)

Top 3 pictures are of one I used a flower pin frog with and the last 2 are of one swirled. I have 2 new ones from last night, one I made using a tube and the other a flower compression marble from a video I found on youtube. They came out VERY cool and I'll post pics once I get them done. Till next time, take care! Sue