Natalie's Notes

Marbling Clay For Beads

I thought it would be useful to have a demonstration on how to marble clay. I suggest only watching about 3 minutes of this 9 minute You Tube Video to see how easy it is.  When I make clay for beads I usually use a handful of light colored clay and a half a handful for the dark colored clay. Whatever color of clay you decide to use, only use clays that fire to the same cone temperature.

Here are some sprig decorated rounds that I made from my last batch of marbled clay. Both clays fire to maturity at cone 5.


What I especially like about marbling clay for beads is that whatever glaze is used it always comes out pretty!  There are so many effects depending on how the clay has been marbled. The light contrasts wonderfully with the dark, so transparent glazes are recommended.

 Here are some similar beads which I fired a few weeks back.  This particular glaze "Sapphire Green" is from Mayco, the gloss glaze series. It is extremely transparent.

Before I close this post, I want to share how the beads came out that I demonstrated last month. Here's the link to the original post: Click Here

I dipped these in a watery black underglaze solution. Once they dried, I wiped them off with a sponge, leaving the black in the recesses. Next I glazed in a pale pink glaze from Mayco called "Petal Pink".

Thanks for dropping by!