2 new marbles - June 09

[richsantaclaus]

The Chicago Bears marble will be for my son-in-law for Christmas. It is 2 1/4" diameter and made with boro. I took 3 hours making this marble and the copper bear is hand cut from copper sheet I have using an Exacto knife. I am liking the fact that I caught NO bubbles when I embedded the copper into the bottom of the view part of the glass - it's been a LONG road to get to where I am today with my copper work.

The second marble is boro with inserted bubbles under the wiggling vortex! This technique I've been thinking about for a few months before I tried it. You guys have seem my other bubble work in soft glass marbles so I wanted to incorporate them into boro more.

Please let me know what you think of these - thanks

[VED]

wow, i love your marbles. the copper work is awsome

[Pyroglasstic]

Nice work Rich,the son in law will be pleased.
Jeff

[MUPH]

Great work. If only you'd make a Packer marble :D

[naughty pirate wench]

Great work Rich - that bear is da bomb! :clap:

I checked out your soft glass marble video on YouTube yesterday - thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!

[CripSkillz]

Holly crap RiCh those are awesome... the copper is lookin great especially without the bubbles ,, nice work.. I know how hard that is...

[mer]

beautiful rich! you're really doing some great work.

[The Lorax]

the bear looks great.

[Firekist]

three thumbs up on the bear! less thumbs on the other one.. but.. 3! on the bear.. what more do you want?

what gauge cu if you don't mind?

z---seth

[richsantaclaus]

Thanks everyone.

Seth,

The gauge... hummmm... I went out and looked, whatever .001 means is what was on the metal sheet on a white sticky tag. I know it cuts (but be VERY careful - one can get a sliced finger VERY easily if you aren't) with a sharp Exacto knife.

Because I go Exacto work all the time, I know to be certain NOT to allow the knife to "hang-up" on the metal as the two metals (the copper and the knife blade) do not like to cut smoothly. I believe in safety first. If you try, PLEASE be careful.

[Johan]

Wow..thats pretty badass..

[Aymie]

I've just got to second that advice about being careful. Metal cuts hurt...they are not nice and smooth like glass cuts or knife cuts. Think paper cut times five thousand.

That being said, that bear is stellar...so nice and clear...great job!

[naughty pirate wench]

Here's another option to cutting metal with an X-acto blade, not real sure how this would hold up to hot glass (but I think it might work, a la Rich's technique for picking up dichro for a soft glass marble...might take some experimentation), but it's very cool nonetheless...my writing partner Peg does this with her fused glass and it turns out very nice...

Use paper punches on copper foil - you can get the paper punches in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, at rubber stamp or scrapbooking stores, or you can find them at JoAnn's or Michaels.

Hmmm. Methinks I should try this...I got copper foil, I got craft punches...I'll get back to you.

[Aymie]

You can use mica as well...but a big nice chunk from a rock shop and then flake it off in thin sheets and use a craft punch. Corinne Winters has it mastered.

[naughty pirate wench]

You can use mica as well...but a big nice chunk from a rock shop and then flake it off in thin sheets and use a craft punch. Corinne Winters has it mastered.

Oooooh, very cool. And I have mica sheets too - but I got them from a paper arts place...I'll have to try that as well.

[richsantaclaus]

Good suggestions!!!!! I don't think they make a Chicago Bears punch though:it'd be cool if they did!

[Dom]

Great job, I looked at the pics first without reading and I immidiately thought of the Bears logo when I saw the marble.

The other one is sweet too.