Blurtart: Red Crab Apple Marble Implosion

This is one of my flameworked glass marbles, handmade by melting and pressing a glass flower design up into a clear glass gather to create an implosion.

People always ask if these marbles are made by capturing a real flower in resin but they are made using only glass. For this marble I was attempting to create some texture and colour gradation on the petals, as well as, a lighter colour on the back of the petals for a more realistic, three-dimensional flower. I used several kinds of glass including Effetre (Italy), Double Helix (USA), Reichenbach (Germany), pulled and twisted into stringers and cane to create the design on the clear Maria. Then I heated and pressed the design repeatedly on a graphite marver to produce the implosion, and finally, heated and shaped the gather into a round marble.