More Coloured Marbles in the Window

I completed another another coloured marbles project last week. For this one I built a heavy frame out of slats of wood that came from a futon bed and quarter-inch thick panes of glass that I think came from window louvres. I've had this glass buried in my closet for years and never knew what to do with it. When I did my 30-day purging challenge in the fall, I decided I had justify hanging on to the glass. (I freely admit that it is concerning that I don't know how long I've had this glass or where it came from. It might have been in the house when I moved in.)

With the success of my first coloured marbles frame, I realized this glass might be stronger than the thin glass in the Ikea frames and if I built the frame from scratch, I could make the space for marbles more narrow so the marbles would be more visible.

I had the slats from the futon frame in the basement waiting for use. It might be that narrower slats might have been better for someone who actually knows how to use a router, but these slats turned out to be a good size for me.

I routed grooves in the slats for the glass to fit into and cut the slats to the right length. (Thanks to Ken G who lent me the router and chop saw to do this with and to Greg S who lent me another saw that I didn't use, but would have if Ken hadn't lent me the chop saw.)  I meant to make the gap only a bit wider than a single marble, but I really was not good with the router and the gap was slightly more than two standard marbles wide. At least I didn't hurt anybody.

I drilled some holes to put the frame together with screws, stained the wood slats with a dark water-based wood stain, assembled the whole thing together and hung it heavy-duty hooks and chain. It probably weighs 20 pounds.

A few of the marbles came from a $1.99 bag at Value Village, but most came from the collection of the lovely Manon.