Cracked Glass Marble Charm

by SnowStar87

9.1K21020

Intro: Cracked Glass Marble Charm

You may have seen Youtube videos featuring these beautiful marbles, only to find out that these marbles are too dangerous to make. Well, that's not true at all. As long as you follow the safety tips, you won't find glass shards in your eyes.

Now you can wear these beautiful marbles!

What you'll need:

  1. Marbles (clear, without the little opaque swirl or glaze) You can also buy flat marbles, but I'm going to be using the round ones today.
  2. Ice
  3. Oven
  4. Safety goggles
  5. Oven mitts
  6. Round nose pliers (for wire only)
  7. Wire or bead caps (wire for caging is 18 gauge, bails are 22 gauge)
  8. E6000 glue
  9. Necklace chain/bracelet chain

STEP 1: Choosing Your Marbles

Look carefully through your marbles. Reject any marbles that have strange cracks, or have too much glaze that you can't see through them. They should all be just as clear, or clearer, than the third photo.

STEP 2: Cracking the Marbles

Preaheat the oven to 230°c (450°F).

Wear your safety goggles. Yes, safety goggles. Not glasses. Safety goggles.

While it's preheating, pour your marbles onto a baking tray layered with baking paper. As soon as the oven is hot enough, put in your marbles and set the timer to 15 minutes.

Keep your safety goggles on.

About 5 minutes before you need to take the marbles out, put your ice in a pot and pour in some water. When the timer goes off, wear your oven mitts and take out the tray of marbles. At this point, the tray and the marbles are VERY hot. I managed to burn myself through cotton oven mitts. As quickly as possible, get the marbles into the pot of ice water. Leave the marbles in for about 3 minutes, then take them out.

They should be cracked quite nicely. Ooh and aah over the glimmery marbles, but bear in mind that they break easily if you drop them on the floor.

STEP 3: Check Your Marbles

Without touching the marbles, check over every single marble to make sure there aren't any cracks on the surface. If there are cracks, throw them away.

Don't drop your marbles, because they break easily. If it breaks, don't panic, and carefully sweep up the pieces.

STEP 4: Caging the Marble

Get your hammer, pliers and wire ready.

Cut out a piece of wire 20 cm (8") long. Using the pliers, make 2 loops at each end of the wire. Keep curling the wire up tightly, so it should like like a spiral without and spaces in between. Leave a 1 cm (half an inch) gap between the two loops when you reach the middle. Hammer it so it lies flat (it also helps to strengthen the wire) Fold your wire in half gently, and slip your marble in between each side. The gap between the 2 loops that you leave should be the middle line. After you put the marble in between each loop, pull out the top tiny loop. (See last photo)

Use some E6000 glue to secure the top and the bottom of the marble to the wire. It is now ready for wearing.

Tip: As I said about a million times, they break easily, so don't wear them in a place where they're likely to be knocked around. If you're wearing it as a necklace, don't put it underneath your clothes, just in case they break, which is unlikely.

STEP 5: Make a Bail for Flat Marbles

Cut out a piece of wire that's 13-15 cm long. (6-7 inches) Fold it in half and using your pliers, make the bend as close to each other as possible. Hammer it flat. Then, make a loop where the 2 wires split, so it looks like the 4th photo. Hammer it flat. Then, make a loop at the top of the bail, so there's a hole to put your necklace string through.

Using the E6000 glue, stick the bail to the back of the marble.

STEP 6: Final Touches

Fit your necklace chain through the top, and TADA!!

A casual and glimmery charm to go with your outfits!

Happy making, crafters! :D

19 Comments

robypc 7 years ago

The quality of your pictures is great! Where did you find a white background?

Yellowlemonshop 7 years ago

Any luck with coating these with something to prevent cracking of dropped? We love the look of cracked glass but things get dropped....it just happens. Let us know if something works great and we will share the results of our experiments also.

Www.theyellowlemonshop.com

kimwindle746 8 years ago

I wonder if you can use a clear gel nail polish (that uses the LED lamps) as a sealant. There are kits available in the manicure section of the store. The LED lamp cures the gel polish on my nails pretty well in my experience. :)

SnowStar87 8 years ago

Maybe?

I guess you could coat a marble then do a little drop test to see if it breaks easily... If you do, I would love to know what happens!

Yellowlemonshop 7 years ago

We would be interested in this also. If there is a good coating to prevent cracking if dropped. Let us know how experiments go with different coatings and we will share our test results also!

Www.theyellowlemonshop.com

warriorethos2 8 years ago

SnowStar87, this is an easy way to make a charm. Can you crack the larger marbles as well? Your instructions and safety precautions are well organized. You have two or three grammar errors just in case you want to edit and use this instructable in another contest. I put this instructable into my collection tab for future projects. Good luck in the jewelry contest.

Amethyst Star 8 years ago

I've tried this with bigger marbles, but they don't seem to crack as nicely as the smaller ones...

warriorethos2 8 years ago

Thank you for your reply and I will stick to what worked for you which is the smaller marbles. Again, good luck in the contest.

Snibril 8 years ago

Would coating the marble with clear nail polish or some kind of glue make it more durable do you think?

I'd like to have a go at this but I really doubt it'd be sensible to give something that easily broken to my daughters (who aren't the most careful of kids).

SnowStar87 8 years ago

I'm not sure about clear nail polish, since nail polish can crack. What tisaconundrum suggested was to dip it in epoxy, which will probably work, if you figure out how to dry it.

tisaconundrum 8 years ago

Could they be dipped in some epoxy to make a harden outer coat so to prevent shards breaking off?

SnowStar87 8 years ago

I'm not quite sure, but it should work... If you do try it, and it works, do tell us! :D

Jess543 8 years ago

I'm going to try this, thanks for the ide

send in a picture if I do!

Peppermint2 8 years ago

Sounds great....will try it as soon as i can find the marblesS!

batonas 8 years ago

you can crack the balls with jet torch and water quickly and easily if you need just a few, I guess lighter and cold water would do the trick too.

giorgia14 8 years ago

Wow! This is fantastic! I have to try it out! Thank you