There will be demonstrations and discussions of different techniques, followed by hands on time for the students to practice the demonstrated techniques. Initially we will start by learning to how gather the glass and begin shaping it into a form to apply the decoration. We will continue to shape it, learning to use marble molds to help refine the shape.

We will show you how to use punties (which are removable handles of glass or metal) to hold the marbles while working on them), both hot and cold seal techniques will be demonstrated and practiced. Finally we will show you how to properly finish the marble and remove the punty mark by flame-polishing. Safety will be stressed and we will show safe methods of transferring from punty to punty, without dropping the marble onto the bench, your lap, or the floor.

As the class progresses, and the students get the basic shaping down, we will begin exploring different decoration techniques. These will include striping colors onto the surface of the marble and then learning to twist them up into swirled designs, speckled patterns using frit and placed dots, as well as beginning to explore the beauty of “folded” marbles with the design deep within the marble. We will also teach the technique for tubing encasement of colors.

Each student should be leaving the class with several completed marbles... actually they would be left in the annealer until the next day.