Baked Glass

After two attempts, I was finally able to semi-succeed at baking glass marbles! I found the technique on Pinterest, like I stated earlier, courtesy of craftster.org.

Now, Ms. Craftster used completely round pieces of glass (true marbles), and only needed to bake hers at 350 degrees (F) for 20 minutes. Another woman and I did not have such luck - we used the glass pieces found in floral departments that are flat on one side. I followed her advice and baked mine at 500 degrees (F) for 20 minutes.

Either type of "marble" you use, be sure to immediately dump them in a sink (or other metal container) full of ice water. Don't worry if you hear sizzling and cracking - you WANT to hear that. Worry if you don't.

I don't know if I like the final product as much as I did the picture Ms. Craftster posted of her finished product. Maybe because my beads aren't completely spherical.

Here are some of my observations that might help you in testing this out for yourself:
- the smaller the marble, the more it cracked and the better it looked.
- colorless marbles seemed to pick up a brownish hue after being baked. They were in a REALLY hot oven for quite a bit of time, so I guess it makes sense.
- Using transparent marbles would not be worth your time. The cracks are inside, so you won't see them if you can't see through them.



Let me know if you try this! I'm hoping to get some actual MARBLES this weekend, so we may have another update!

Cheers!