Francis is Canada's most famous and well-known marble artist, where among other things he was featured on the fantastic Canadian science show "How It's Made" where he showed his hot shop methods for creating art glass marbles. I don't believe Francis is still making marbles (as of 2024), as I haven't seen any new ones in quite a few years. He used classic soft glass furnace techniques to create his wonders, and while some of them are the normal cane style swirl marbles, others are very unique and highly collectible. Every collection needs a Coupal represented in it! This here is one of those unique styles I mentioned above, and it is as unique and rare as they come! Back in 2004 Francis attended the Wheaton Village marble show where I got to meet him in person, and he created a line of fused marbles specially for that show. They required an immense amount of effort from him to achieve, and as far as I know, he never made them again, making these extremely unique and collectible. Basically he fused various shapes of glass together and then formed them into spheres, somehow keeping those lines separating the sections pretty straight and intact, an amazing achievement with hot glass. This is the most complex piece he had at that show, so many sections fused together, and it is a true wonder to behold! Signed 'FC 04'.