How to Make a René Marble

[sharonL]

Wow - I just read Jim Boles tutorial on making a marble. What a beautiful marble. He's shown me that you can decorate a marble any way you want. For some reason I always thought they needed to be either twistie looking or have two sides that are different. Not!

He makes it look easy and I wanted to thank him for taking the time to show us something that even I can understand.

He's going to also show us how to make an easy quick little crucible for casing the marble. Thanks a lot Jim.

Looks like we have another Mark Wilson taking us by the hand and teaching us new and special treats.

[Jim Boles]

Thanks for the kind words Sharon.

A Mark Wilson I'm not though... we'll maybe kind of, but Mark is a little more advanced than me in some ways.

For example, Mark was quick to point out that using a small kiln as a crucible kiln isn't the best situation. You can do it, but the little kilns are not really made to sustain the temperatures (2000-2200 degrees) that are needed for doing encasing of marbles.

However, my goal for an article would be just to show you how it is done, how simple it is. If it fits into your own goals, then you may want to make or buy a real crucible klin.

That's where Mark would be invaluable. He could tell how to make a crucible kiln fairly cheaply. I, on the other hand, usually just buy my equipment. I have more money than brains and time I guess. At least I think that's my excuse.

If anyone wants to see a demo of encashing a marble using a small crucible inside of a bead kiln let me know in this thread.

[xoticbead]

I am really lousy at encasing with a rod, can you tell me how to do it with the melted glass, Thanks in advance.

[loydb]

Great tutorial! I'm going to print it out and try one this week.

loyd

[bluelizzy]

Sounds great. Where is this tutorial??? Maybe a link, pretty please

[Jim Boles]

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Articles2/19501/319/

The above is the URL. If it doesn't work try the main page for the Glass Forumn. The article is on the top right hand side.

Regarding encasing.

The method with a small crucible is for marbles, and wouldn't work for beads.