How To Crack A Crystal Ball / Glass Sphere Without Shattering It

Breaking The Vessel

The process of creating a cracked glass sphere has some really great symbolism. You heat the vessel to a high temperature; expanding it. Then you submerge the glass in a cold temperature. The outer layer of glass shrinks rapidly. This creates fractures in the glass without shattering it. it's an amazing process amazing and the results can be beautiful.

I've made my own little tutorial using a larger sphere but here are the original steps that I followed from WikiHow with marbles instead (same process): https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Cracked-Marbles

The Glass Sphere / Crystal Ball

I purchased a K9 crystal ball. You can get these on amazon and many other online stores by searching "K9 crystal ball" (go figure). They come in many different sizes. The images can be deceiving so be sure you know what size you're getting (the big ones are heavy!).

This is the one I purchased on amazon (if the link is still active): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BXV7YGH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. It's a size 80mm / 3.15". You can get an idea of the size relative to the photos I took for the tutorial.

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This is a fun little video just messing around with the broken sphere (this is a larger one than what is in the photos above) using a headlamp in a dark space. The refractions are mesmerizing, so go experiment ya own-self!