bumblebee

I like that idea! I know my ex would not have tolerated that. Stirring through a bin like that in good light should put a smile on any collector's face. Meanwhile, I finally have settled on a strategy for my wooden jewelry box after trying to put several different makers in it. Turns out its bright felt liner doesn't work well with most opaque marbles, but it shines with cat-eyes and similar marbles with lots of clear glass. Now I just need to find an overhead light to stick under the shelf above it so I can really get the lights bouncing through these. Edit: Note that the top drawer marbles were formerly all stashed away in show-off trays not touching each other, and now they look much better together.

I highly recommend Peleliu 1944: Horror in the Pacific as the most poignant WWII documentary I have ever seen. You have to rent/buy it, but it is well worth it. Features much interview footage with the legendary marine and author Eugene Sledge along with several soldiers he fought with on that island and beyond. So many WWII veterans never told their stories, but here they bare so much brutal honesty in an intimate interview setting. I own this on VHS and watch it every Memorial Day. For the Vietnam War, HBO's Dear America is a haunting documentary set to Vietnam-era music and war footage featuring actors reading actual letters home from Vietnam by soldiers and support staff. This free version isn't perfect as it has some edits due to copyrights, etc, but editing and music selection is top shelf, and the results pack a serious punch. Another worth owning on DVD. I also try to remember all the soldiers from other eras who perished in so many terrible or sad ways, not always in combat. They forever deserve our remembrance and honor and respect.

I'm now sourcing jewelry boxes to condense my collection into one maker per box. For example, testing one out with some Vitro and WV swirls: Now I'm seriously considering this $30 two-layer box on eBay. My goal is to retire the plastic show-off trays. Obviously these are not ideal when moving or shipping the marbles but for static storage I really like this approach.

Here! Here! Well spoken. I really like that realization that glass marbles--if kept safe--can last 1000 years or more. My ex never sold my marbles but I am pretty sure she or my children dropped a number of them out of a brag box once because one day I realized they all had one major ding on them, and this happened in our garage with the concrete floor, but I never launched an investigation. I still wince at that damage to some of those. Naturally my modest effort today to populate the new jewelry box has turned into a scattered field of marble chaos that will take days to clean up.

Today I put most of my oddball and random keepers that were formerly in plastic show-off trays into this wooden snack bowl(?). The round area containing Vitro Tiger Eyes is temporary because I don't think it does justice to them, so I will likely replace them with slags or benningtons. Combining so many mint-range marbles like this required going outside my comforting zone, but it feels liberating and far more practical than their prior storage methods. The fun part here is I can dig through and "rediscover" these marbles any time I wish by just scooping my hand in, whereas before they were scattered across stacks of show-off trays. The bowl is about two inches deep so it holds a lot. Over time I'm sure I'll pick out a few and put into separate groupings. The human eye loves patterns and groupings of designs and colors so my bowl here is rather chaotic to the eye, but this works for me because many of these marbles are oddballs and one-offs. Going forward I will be grouping my like marbles together. As most of you know, some marbles just require a little more real estate to appreciate their surfaces, so I will likely be doing "flats" of single layers of these types. The ones that come to mind for me are Peltier Rainbos, Akro Corks, Master Sunbursts, Vitro Tiger Eyes and Hybrid cats. I am going to pick up a jewelry box today for more storage options, so stay tuned for more updates on this series about breaking the shackles of mint marble storage in order to find more joy in one's collection. 🤣

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In the next episode of The Zen of Marble Collecting, our initiate decides to take his precious mint slags he found in the wild over 15 years and remove them from their isolated storage area. He will then (or will he?) put them all in a container together. Stay tuned!

Recently I took several small bags of my better machine made marbles and combined them all into a cigar box, sort of out of frustration for a lack of display options. It made me realize just how much I enjoy rummaging through my marbles and rediscovering them in a box like this, compared to when they are all neatly laid out on a solitaire board, for example. Plus I can fit so many more this way that otherwise are hidden away in keeper trays or small baggies in my closet. Indeed, this feels more natural and more like how I remember enjoying marbles as a child. It also reminds me of that thrill of picking through a new lot found in the wild. Of course the risk here--perhaps a sacrilege to some--is that I am inviting the accumulation of micro scratches and even the occasional ding by doing this. As collectors we know the minor miracle that is a vintage marble that survived in mint condition. But do I really care at this stage in my life? These are marbles I might be able to sell for $1 to $15 each, but probably most in lower range. My children have no interest in them and certainly won't cry over scratchier marbles when they are dealing with dad's marble hoard some day. Sure, I do have some killer keepers that will stay in my nice brag boxes, but why am I not relaxing and letting down my guard on the mint cheaper marbles so that I can enjoy them more? Has anyone else loosened up in a similar way in order to enjoy their collection more?

Feels like a swirl to me too.

Wow that last one is incredible!

It's buggy right now. Probably too many people using it. I often have to refresh the page and try again.

"Ron's happy clean toy marbles in a big tub"

You can go to https://app.wombo.art/ and type a prompt and then select a style. The AI engine will then generate the piece for you. (Sometimes it glitches and you have to start over.) Here are some of my prompts. "Playing Marbles with God" "Stephanie researching marbles with her cat" "Middle age men trading marbles in a hotel" "Ron sitting on a pile of dug toy marbles in West Virginia" (Don't feel bad, Ron, this is abstract art!) "Finding a super rare toy marble in the wild" (This might be my favorite)

Glad to hear you're back on the mend!

Nice mineral spheres! I have been tempted to collect more mineral spheres but I am rather hooked on the German handmade agate marbles. Just got this 1.06" hand-faceted one today, which is about the largest size I have found for German agates. I have seen someone who has some 2" ones that are hand-ground but I suspect they were made as advertising displays:

Seller in Mexico showed me this bag of clay marbles he said was from the 1950s/1960s from a defunct company. He confirmed they are clay by busting one open. He was asking about $140 for them so I passed but @Al Oregon said he had not seen this bag before, so I thought it worth posting for the sake of history.

And the winner is.... THE BOTTOM MARBLE is a Bulgarian handmade. 42% (6 votes) chose that marble which is very impressive to me. The top and middle marbles got 28% (4 guesses each). In hand, the only dead giveaway to my eyes was the color on the Bulgarian. Even the pontil was close enough to the Navarre to fool the eye without a loupe. Under magnification, however, the Bulgarian pontil is rough across the surface like fine sandpaper, common to all the Bulgarian marbles. Now I just need a couple of Leightons to do this again....😉

Hah! Creative guessing but they're all shades of purple.

Pretty sure these are also Guacamayas in a 1990s net bag.

That's too bad! 5/8" would have been ideal but I assume they're not trying to cater to our very small community. But imagine you could have all Pelt Rainbos, Vitro Easter Eggs, etc.

I made them grayscale to make this more challenging. I will post the answer and the color version on Sunday evening.

Maybe the YouTube will work:

Definitely a fun truly vintage group to sort through with some interesting looking ones.

Unclear to me whether you can use your own game marbles on it. That seems a must-have feature to me.

Scored some Reverse Blackies in an estate sale jar today. $25 for the jar. Not shown are a bunch more common mibs including a couple of nice Akro corks and the usual beat-up slags and a few rusty steelies.