Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

March 7, 2013

Water Marbles

When I saw this jar of 'water marbles' on Pinterest, I was of course intrigued and desperately wanted to make my own.  The Pinterest picture incorrectly says that they can be made with 'just a few simple kitchen ingredients'.  I never looked to see what they were because when I investigated this craft, a lot of people said all they ended up with was a big fat mess in their kitchen and it didn't work.  Someone else said that these colourful water marbles are made from a polymer bead that expands in water, and the kit can be bought online.


I found them on Amazon.com for $5!!!!

They start out as tiny little opaque or clear beads.

Here they are after being put in water.

About an hour later.  The clear marbles all but disappear.

And after another hour

Here they are after being submerged all night long!

They are sooo cool!  Very firm to the touch, slippery, rubbery and they bounce!


I'm not sure what happens after they dehydrate.

As of today, they have only shrunk a little bit!

12 comments:

  1. Weird! I have never seen these before. I thought the first photo had glass marbles in the jar. Very cool project.

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  2. they look so cool, even cooler that they bounce

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  3. That is cool, never ran across anything like these before.

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  4. There is potting soil that you can buy with these polymers in it so that they keep the soil damp as they start to shrink. I bought some once in the mid 90s and it had too much of the polymers. After a rainstorm all my plants were pushed out of the pots and the ground was covered with large clear, slimy, gelled cubes. It was freaky.

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  5. Anonymous12:14 PM

    I can always rely on you to tell me things I didn't know ;0)

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  6. How cool!! I didn't know they had such things. How weird they bounce. They look like they are made of glass.

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

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  7. You can use these in flower arranging. They support the stems. It's the only thing vaguely like one of your creative things I've ever done!

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  8. I've never seen this before must check out amazon. You always come up with such good things to do.

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  9. Neat! I love those. Is it something you can keep adding water to?

    Shannon at The Warrior Muse

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  10. Anonymous7:50 AM

    We got something something similar to this for Peanut and once the water was gone, so was the project =( LOL

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  11. How cool are those!

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  12. They are still really damp/wet so they are as full now as they were when I put them in the jar. I call them 'my little bloopies' and I like to give the jar a shake to watch them bounce around. lol Yes, I'm easily amused!

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