Frit Imposion Pendant Tutorial by Chad Trent - Soleil et Lune Designs

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Start with a rod of clear. Gather a ball of glass about 1½ - 2 times the diameter of the original rod.

I'm using 16mm boro clear, but this works for soft glass as well.
Flatten the ball gently. What you have just made is called a "maria". I don't know why it's called that. After you do this, if you turn the rod upside down (so the flattened part is at the top) it should look like the head of a very large nail.

You don't want to push too hard and make it too thin. About half as thick as the original rod is as thin as you want to go.
Re-heat the flattened part of the maria, then dip it into some frit. This is Glass Alchemy Purple Luster large frit. For this, I think larger frits look better, but try different sizes and see what you like.

If you wanted to make this into a dot implosion, instead of dipping into frit, you would make dots of colored glass on the flattened part of the maria at this point.
A good covering of frit. You don't want too much where you can't see any clear through it.
Heat it up and melt it in a little. It doesn't have to be smooth.
Hold your rod at a 45 degree downward angle.
Imagine the maria as a tire on a car. You want the flame to hit the "tread" of the tire. Keep rotating, and keep the rod angled downward. Before long you will notice the outside edges starting to swell. This is what you want.
Once the edges have swollen, gently marver it flat again. Not too hard.  You want to to be about the same thickness it was when you started. This will make the frit, which is cooler than the outside, go up inside the clear and "implode".
See how the frit is closer to the center of the face than when we started?
Return to the flame, but this time hold the rod parallel to the table, and let the flame hit square in the face of the maria. Keep rotating. You will notice the frit starting to move more towards the center.
See how much smaller the frit looks now? That's what you want.
Return the rod to the flame at a 45 degree angle, and heat the tread a little more, then marver again. You can see in this photo how the frit is imploding inside the clear.
You can see the implosion pretty clearly now.
Heat up a some color and press it onto the back of the maria. This is the background color for your pendant. I'm using Glass Alchemy Black Violet.
Keep gathering until the gather is about the same thickness as the diameter of the colored rod. Don't stress over that too much.  That is just an estimate.
Melt off the clear rod.
I like to go back and remove excess clear with my tweezers. This step is optional, but I think it gives a nicer finished product.
Melt the clear by putting just the tip in the flame. Keep rotating, with the colored rod angled downward. Try to keep the heat on the clear only. If you get the colored rod too hot, the pendant will start to flop around. If this happens, don't panic. Just take it out of the flame and turn it up 90 degrees, so that the pendant is facing down and your hand is holding the colored rod above it. Gravity will straighten it back out.
Keep rotating it until it rounds out. No mold required.
Punty up to the front with a cold seal and melt off the colored rod.
Get the color hot and flatten the back. Remember not to heat the punty or it will be difficult to remove later.
See how there is an indentation around the color where it joins the clear? You don't want that.
Return it to the flame and heat until there is a smooth transition from the color to the clear. Flatten again.
Make a bead on a mandrel and attach it like in the BASIC PENDANT TUTORIAL.

The pendant is now ready for the kiln.