Discoveries of an amateur marbler

When I first took a marbling class in 2008 with Nancy Morains, she provided a bouquet rake so that we could try making that classic pattern. Her bouquet rake (or double rake) was made to fit her tanks perfectly and it seemed almost effortless! Well, the results from the class were far from perfect, but they were recognizable. Here is one that I did in that class - I think the biggest problem with this is the globby paint, not the technique with the rake. Yikes. After that class, I set myself up to do some marbling at home. Alas, I did not buy myself a bouquet rake because I thought I could do it with two passes of the standard rake. That technique, however, never worked very well for me. So I gave up on it for a while. Eventually, I made myself a bouquet rake and still couldn't get it to look right. I made a substantial effort to improve my bouquet rake technique during my last marbling session. Many papers were terrible and discarded immediately. Many others were mediocre. I could tell they were a little better, but still wobbly and almost out of control with bouquets of all different shapes and sizes. Like this... Then I discovered something. I discovered that my bouquet rake made small bouquets! It started working so much better! I had to nearly stand on my head to watch the pattern emerge as I used the rake, to see what was happening and then it all came together - understanding the spacing of the nails was far more important than I realized. This is probably the best example, so far. As you can see, the bouquets are quite small; but finally, they are nearly consistent in size and shape. Also, a rather successful Frog's foot pattern too (or thistle pattern?) using the same rake. I will continue to practice. Also, I may try to make myself another double rake with more spacing. But after all this, I think I made it over a little hump. If anyone reading this has any advice about making the bouquet pattern, or anything at all to say about it, I would love to hear from you!