Finding his marbles Glass artist's hobby becomes a business

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- For the longest time, glass artist Drew Fritts says as he settles onto a padded stool in front of his custom workbench, he couldn't figure out why the knees of his jeans kept wearing away.

On his right, a tall side table holds a rainbow of thin glass rods that spill color like fragile pickup sticks from tiny cubbies. On the bench in front of him, thicker canes of glass stand tall in a sort of free-form sculpture.

Here, in his small, private Springfield studio, is where Fritts spends his workdays, designing and custom-creating contemporary marbles. In just a few years, he's built a business around the art of oversize orbs, an exploding trend among glass artists that feeds the parallel demand among collectors.

Propping his feet on a footrest attached the base of the bench, he pushes a pair of goggles onto his nose and lights a stationary torch. Holding a punty -- or metal rod -- in one hand, he draws out a length of black glass with the other.

Planting his elbows firmly on his knees, which steadies his hands and erodes the fabric of his jeans, he begins to work his marble magic.

'Strictly for decoration'

A self-taught craftsman, Fritts signs, dates and numbers his original works, which appear in private collections and galleries around the world, including the Marble Collectors Society of America's permanent collection and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He was also profiled among 100-plus premier marble artists in Mark P. Block's book "Contemporary Marbles and Related Art Glass."

"They're really referred to as spheres," said Block, an art glass expert from Connecticut. "Marbles by definition are child's play. These are strictly for decoration and ornamental purposes. And there's a real distinction between the high-end collector and the general marble collector."

Block estimates at least 300 professional glass artists are creating the spheres nationwide, but only a handful make them exclusively.

"Drew is one of those," Block said. "I have the highest regard for Drew and his work. He really is in the top 10 for quality."

Which is rather amazing, Block said, considering Fritts is relatively new to the art form.

Contemporary marbles range widely in price, depending on method, technique and artist. Some go for thousands. Others, in the hundreds. Fritts' orbs generally range from $85 to $150.

Collecting marbles of any kind is a fairly young hobby, he added, dating back less than 30 years. In fact, Block's father, a marble-collecting pioneer, founded the nationally recognized MCSA in 1975.

Marble clubs are springing up all over the country, and numerous books have been written on the subject.

The pioneers of the contemporary marble movement were artists Richard Marquis and Ro Purser, said Block, who introduced new marble art at a California festival in the mid-1980s. The demand for contemporary marbles is less than five years old, he added. But it's growing.

A few contemporary marbles have doubled in value, depending on the artist, but most people buy them for their beauty, Block said.

Didn't know of collectors

Until just a few years ago, Fritts didn't know that people collected marbles of any kind. And he never predicted he would eventually develop a full-time business around the art form he began as a hobby.

When he started, the one-time woodworker and self-proclaimed instant-gratification junkie knew only that he wanted a creative outlet with more immediate rewards than wood.

First he turned to stained glass. Then he tried glass beads. Finally, he discovered marbles.

Then in 1998, a marble show came to Springfield. Fritts took his kids and gave each a bag of marbles he'd made. "And they were selling and trading my marbles all around the show," he said.

There was a market for marbles, he discovered that day. So he put up a Web site, and in two days sold all he had.

A business was launched.

While his early work was crude, the artist is known today for his designs, including a butterfly series inspired by the colors and patterns of Monarchs.

Other marbles feature tiny, colorful glass flowers encased in clear glass orbs. Still others bear a rainbow of colors that twist upon themselves in one way or another. One of his most recent designs zigzags in an almost impossible manner. He calls that one the "Psycho Twisted," and says it took hours of experimentation to create.

He also produces limited-edition marbles, and he uses tools and methods he created.

"Because I'm self-taught, I try things other people say you can't do," said Fritts, who is writing a how-to book.

A popular design among collectors, said Fritts, are marbles with bright, swirling colors, some of which he mixes himself.

Twisting the stripes to create that swirl is his favorite part of the process for those designs, he said.

It's also the most difficult.

After elongating the soft plug, Fritts very slowly twists first one end, then the other, to get three rotations. For this rainbow design, he adds a backward twist in the middle. He then pushes the whole thing back together in a painstaking process.

"The trick to precision," he said, waving the piece in and out of the flame, "is controlling the heat."

Leaning back for a moment, Fritts closely examines the swirl he created to ensure its symmetry.

Satisfied, he begins to shape the plug, turning it round and round in one mold, then reheating it and turning it in another.

Traditional molds didn't satisfy Fritts, so he invented his own, which he cut from cherry wood.

To finish his marbles, Fritts pokes the now-spherical design into his crucible, or furnace, dipping out hot molten glass the consistency of honey. Cooling it slightly, he proceeds to the final step: shaping the clear glass encasement into a sphere.

Once the orb is finished, he flame polishes the surface and signs it "A.F." Learning to make marbles has been a trial-and-error process, Fritts said. But he knows his marbles are measurably spherical, and his objective is to achieve perfection.

"That's my perfectionist bucket right there," he said with a smile, pointing to a container full of "trash" marbles.

"I won't sell anything with flaws in it. My customers have come to know when they buy one of my marbles, it's going to be as perfect as I can make it."