I saw this cool project online where you could bake marbles, put them in ice cold water and the inside would crack, looking like a gem stone. So I figured I would try it!
I went to Michael's and got a bag of clear glass marbles (they have to be translucent in order to be able to see the cracks). First of all I took wax paper and put it in a cake tin and put the marbles on top, and put them in the oven which was pre-heated to 500 degrees. Yeah, I figured out real that wax paper, that is meant for baking wont hold up in those extreme temperatures. I looked in and saw it smoking and burning. So, I would suggest NOT using wax paper. I ended up just putting the marbles straight in the cake tin.
I left them in there for 20 minutes. 7 minutes before the timer went off though I got the water ready. The colder you can get the water the better. I put about 6 cups of cold water and 10-15 ice cubes. I noted that after the 5 minutes the ice had been in the water, it wasn't melting or it wasn't noticeable. At that point the marbles were done with their 20 minutes! I took them out, and gently dumped them into the bowl of ICE cold water. This is where people have had marbles crack in half, NONE of mine did that!!
*When they are taken out of the water they may be cloudy, it's normal.* Well, I noticed when they had dried off and cleared up some, they weren't really cracked that much on the inside. So I repeated the process over again. Baking them 20 more minutes, and putting them into ice cold water (some new ice cubes). And after I let them dry, they looked better!
I made them into necklaces, but due to the nature of them being cracked inside, they are easily broken if dropped or slammed into something hard. I decided to over look this and make a cage for them. I had some Wild Wire supplies left and used some wire and pliers from it.
I bought some screw clasps..
And after about 15 minutes I had a spiral cage for the marble, it attached to the string, and the clasps attached to the string!
Finished Necklaces for sale HERE
Fantastic! Thanks so much for posting about your process. I saw this on pint rest and tried it, but didn't have good results. I'll try with the higher temp and colder water.
ReplyDeleteNo problem! Yeah, I saw them too and it just wasnt turning out right, so I baked them again!!! It worked :P
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