How to Use Glass Marbles in Jewerly
In addition to being beautiful and shiny, glass marbles are cheap and, it seems, found almost everywhere. While any piece of colored, decorative glass can make for lovely jewelry, marbles need to be prepared so that they can be hung or strung into a jewelry design. One effective means of doing this is by creating a handmade wire cap and affixing it with a strong glue.
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Things You'll Need
- Marble
- Jewelry wire
- Cone-nosed jewelry pliers
- Needle-nosed jewelry pliers
- Wire snips
- Small piece of clay
- Cyanoacrylate glue or quick setting epoxy
Instructions
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Cut a strip of wire two and a half inches in length.
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2
Create a loop in one end of the wire. Grip the tip of the wire with the cone-nosed pliers. Wrap the wire around one of the cone sides until it reaches all the way around. Trim any excess wire with wire snips, but make sure the loop is closed.
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Wrap the wire in a spiral to make a cap. Grip the loop tip in the needle-nosed pliers, covering it. While keeping the pliers closed around the loop, create a spiral from the remaining length of wire, one that lays perpendicular to the loop. Make the spiral at least three layers thick. Trim excess wire.
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4
Shape the wire spiral into a cup shape by pressing it against the round surface of the marble; this will help it stick later.
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Press the marble you want to cap into the lump of clay to secure it. Make sure the spot where you want the cap is pointing straight up.
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Place a dot of cyanoacrylate glue on the top of the marble.
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Use the pliers to press the wire cap onto the top of the marble. Position it so that the spiral of wire is pressed into the dot of glue. Let this cure and harden for one hour before removing the marble from the clay.
Incorporate the capped marble into a jewelry design as a pendant. Alternately, add a second wire cap to the opposite end of the marble so that you can string it like a bead with other capped marbles or rosary-looped beads (beads strung with short lengths of wire with loops at both ends).
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References
- Photo Credit marble image by Horticulture from Fotolia.com
