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St. Marys to me.

Champ. These were some of the last marbles run there, found in 55 gallon drums at the auction of the factory contents.

Thank you for sharing this, Aiko. I have great admiration for people with creative and artistic talent, and it is obvious to me that you have both. I especially like the ocean themed pieces and the kimono beads, but my favorites are the sewing pins - they are so simple and yet so beautiful! The little envelopes are also very sweet. My wife would be overjoyed to receive those as a gift!

Alley 1st, Champ 2nd IMO

Mainly glass beads. I started lampworking in 1996, and it was kind of connected to my fond memories in Arizona. I was an exchangee at Northern Arizona University for one academic year. We had a small bead shop in downtown a hippie man ran. My marble hobby started in 1998. These are photos I shared with Brian Graham in December 2021, when we introduced ourselves. I made small number of marbles on torch. The glass is Moretti/Effetre for these pieces. Japanese Satake is kind of too soft and I found it harder to work with to make marbles. Again Moretti/Effetre. I loved the bright colors. These beads are worn with Kimono. Glass head pins for sewing❤️ The glass is Satake. The working temperature is low, so it's easier to make these kind of delicate things. I had a fascination with patina of old glass which inspired me to make this series of glass beads. The material is Satake and thick silver foil. Ocean themed. My love of seashells started as a child.

These images are just killer! If it is not an Alley Agate--I give up😇--not really! I appreciate all opinions and hope to see some more here. @cheese? Marble--On!!

Thank you for the link. Japanese toy robots and pressed steel are my other interests. The reason I asked about COE is because Japan must import fuel. Some glass manufacturers used imported cullet (recycled) glass and added fluxes to further reduce the melting point, thus saving on fuel cost. The downside is that the glass marbles chip easier. Satake = 125 Moretti = 104 Spectrum = 96 Bulleseye = 90 Pyrex = 33 You have given me more to research. Arigato.

I'm with Tommy.

Fruit stripes is a lovely name! In Tokyo there is an antique shop called Toritori which specializes vintage toys. The shop owner does Instagram. Please find her posts @nishiogi_toritori. I'm sure you would enjoy her posts and find something you would like. I haven’t melted any of Seike’s marbles myself, so I don’t know the COE. For cat’s-eye base, makers typically used recycled cullet. The colored glass needs to be compatible with the base, so I’d guess they formulated the colors to suit whatever cullet was available at the time? Satake started supplying glass to lampworkers in the early Showa era, but I haven’t come across any specific connection to marble makers—either transitionals or early machinemades. Have you heard of Kamitani? According to their records, they supplied colored glass to marble makers as early as the Taisho era. All the marble makers except Seike seem to use Kamitani colors. I once asked Kamitani about COE. They said they provide both soft and hard versions of each color so that marble makers could adjust for compatibility. I had been a lampworker for almost 20 years. I loved Satake, but also used Moretti/Effetre and other glasses like North Star. You know Satake and that surprises me!

Hi Aidan, thanks for your comment!😃 When Reiko shared the story and marbles with me, sharing them with others became my duty. I hope my report reach to many people here too.

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