Oh how I love making Glassy!
Easy 4 Step: Glassy-sphere Tut!
As you can see my new avatar resembles my statement above. I love glassy! I use gimp to let you know and the tutorial goes as follows.
Step 1:
Create a new image(100x100) for the tut. First take your round select tool and make an nice selection fitting within the boundaries of your image.
Note: Make sure you remember to know how to make this selection as you need to later in step 4.
Now Fill the selection with your desired color.
Step 2:
Now, with gimp we have a "Intersect with current selection" option on the round select tool which basically makes a selection only within the current selection. Find a similar tool with your image editor and make a selection using the bottom part of the round tool selection. It's a little hard explain.

But basically this is just part of a new circle.
Once you get it, turn fill the selection with a lighter color like so.

Once you get the color right, move on to step 3.
Step 3:
Now dis-select everything(ctrl+shift+A in gimp).
Make a new round selection centered at the top of the button/sphere.

Now take the gradient tool. Grade from top to bottom of the new selection, repeat, of the new selection, not the whole image. Like so.

Good. Moving along.
Step 4:
Now remember in step one how I said to remember how to make the first selection? Well do this now to select the button/sphere.

Now take the gradients tool once again. Bring down the opacity to let say 40.0 or whatever works best. Grade from bottom too top.

And WAHLAH!(or how ever you say that.)
Surface:
As you get familiar with your editing software, you grow better and better. And as you study other's work, play around while bored and get creative, this skill comes as well. So practice this tut some and you'll get the hang of it. Experiment some.
BTW with my avatar it's just step 1 and step 3. And I'd say it looks pretty impressive. lol.
Have a good one.
