Picture 017

I'm telling you, I was depressed. I was really depressed. I mean, if you had put in infinite effort and care and for the reward of your labours had produced that trio of Green Aspherical Unholies -- wouldn't you be depressed? I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. The glass wouldn't behave, the mold wouldn't behave, I was tearing my hair and wondering why the heck I ever wanted to play with hot glass anyway, there are a lot easier things to do. And meanwhile the irrepressible Roy Bourcier, who started working glass after I did, was already making nice marbles. I was so frustrated and despondent that I hated to even look at my torch. Then, with infinite patience and advice from Drew Fritts, the good day finally came. I made 2 round, shiny marbles in a row, and they didn't take an hour or more each. It was the Eureka day. Drew said, make a series of plain black glass marbles and make them right. So I tried. And at last it all started to make sense. Here are my first marbles with a decent finish.