Beginners marble

[Rascal]

After practising a couple of plain clear marbles, I thought I'd have a play with some colour and here is my first coloured marble, I've not managed to get the swirly bits totally flat, but the cat has played with it so it must be roundish 

Thanks to everyone who offered advice on how to stop the marble rolling out of the kiln, this one stayed in the kiln until I was ready for it to come out!

marble by KWebbo, on Flickr

Apologies for the dodgy photo and nail varnish!

[ajda]

That looks brilliant for a beginner - certainly way better than any of my first attempts!
What torch are you using? And are you using a marble mould/shaper or just working with gravity?

[garishglobes]

Very nice  It's impressive to have got the red and yellow so nice and smooth, specially if they are on the surface, which it looks as if they are. The opaque reds and yellows can be tricky colours and bubble a bit in a hot flame.

[Lotti]

Lovely

[Rascal]

That looks brilliant for a beginner - certainly way better than any of my first attempts!
What torch are you using? And are you using a marble mould/shaper or just working with gravity?

Thanks, I'm using a mega minor but have a 10L oxycon which has made a massive difference. I'm using gravity to begin with but then use the marble mould. Got really frustrated using gravity with clear glass so have decided if there is a tool to help, why not use it!

Thanks to everyone, the red and yellow are on the surface, there wasn't any planning or thinking just pure blind luck with how any colours turned out and I bet I can't replicate it either!

[ajda]

Got really frustrated using gravity with clear glass so have decided if there is a tool to help, why not use it!

Agreed.  I'm not a gravity-only purist, though with my eggs I tend to get the best results when I don't use anything else - gravity plus a lot of patience, I should say.

For marbles I'm coveting one of these - http://www.elementsglass.co.uk/brands/Infinite-Rim.html - but can't really justify the expense right now... Anyone else out there using them?

[Steampunkglass]

Lovely! I think for soft glass gravity is probably ok, but a mould just makes it a lot easier, you can spend more time on trying designs rather than worrying about shaping 

I do have an infinite rim mould, (and I'll try and bring it along this weekend for everyone to try) I find it's helpful towards the end when you're not doing so much shaping as 'tweaking,' were as a normal mould I find is better to knock them into the basic shape to start with then finish in the infinite rim as it can sometime miss dents. Having said that you can sometimes rotate a marble in it and feel a slight rumble through the handle when it's not quite smooth!

[garishglobes]

We have one and I like it! I have to say that it doesn't just get used for marbles but for a variety of other shaping operations plus it makes a very handy storage bowl for eyes etc..  

[Calico Cat]

I use one of the infinite rim moulds - wouldn't be without it.

The weighted handle gives an excellent balance - plus, should the worst happen, you can remove/replace the graphite piece.

[Pat from Canvey]

Well done Karen. The swirl looks very good.

[Moira HFG]

Looks great! I love the colours.