Royal3

Last time I tried that link it was kaput, unfortunately. The most comprehensive website for identifying contemporary spheres that I currently know of is Brian Bowden’s offering: https://www.pbase.com/bkbowden/marblesforsale&gcmd=add_comment He may also be very interested in obtaining some of your items.

I’ve had this beauty for a long while - it was 😍 at first sight. It’s an early Akro, 13/16”+ mint:

Inspired and talented? Oh my yes - 40 days annealing! I hadn’t seen that vid or those huge globes, Alan, and they are truly remarkable creations (as are all of Josh’s other works, frankly.)

Ric, I eventually did find a mint one at a marble show many years later after a LOT of searching - and it wasn’t cheap, but it and the damaged one both still have homes here since I think dad loved that one, too.

The Joker boys (L to R Jim King, the late Ed Parsons, Kevin Plummer, the late Dave McCullough of JABO, and Rick Hall) ready to dive into the first ‘J.E.R.K’ run after it cooled overnight: Not quite the holy grail all of us were seeking - gold lutz - but these early ones were tantalizingly close.

I feel your pain Nickel Guy - one of the favorite corks I found in my dad’s old Akro #200 box was this flawed beauty: Being a complete novice at that point I thought I’d just find a mint example of it, no problem. Silly me lol.

Solid ‘candle’ core swirl

This 7/8” mint faceted pontil onion is still my favorite - I’ve not seen another like it. I’ve always called it Io for it’s tortured, boiling hot looking glass, frozen forever…

I’m so saddened to read this, his passing is such a huge loss for his wife and family and for all of his extended family in this marble community. Dave was simply the best at whatever he did, and how lucky for us he loved making round balls of glass. He will not soon be forgotten.

Chad he was a kind and patient one as well. When I first met him my knowledge of his beloved Peltiers likely wouldn’t have filled a cereal box top. As is said of so many in other arenas - we stand on the shoulders of giants, and Mike was very tall indeed.

Can’t say I’ve had any weird jobs - hot ones, yes - e.g. I worked college summers on a homebuilder’s gravel crew prepping new basements. Great way to lose weight fast (and I learned to love using a jackhammer, too.) But my first job out of college was a bit unusual because I was hired as an “assistant clerk” in a wholesale lumber company at $100/week - big money lol - and the head clerk, my new boss, was a young woman. Saying that that was ‘weird’ in 1974 would be an understatement - women in the lumber industry were extremely scarce to begin with, but women as superiors? Almost unheard of then, sadly - but I found it as natural for me as any other relationship, and both she and I went on to bigger and better positions in the future.

Yep!

Akro slag

Pity, that’s a htf color combo in an Akro Prize Name.

Alley alley this AM…

I love breakfast! I could eat it three meals a day. Best one? Too hard to choose, though the Ronneburg restaurant in one of the Amana colonies served the best Swedish pancakes and a delicious buffet that is memorable. I took Ron Shepherd and a few other marble show buddies there and even he came away satiated lol (but they don’t have buttered grits…so I can’t call it ideal.)

X2

Wonky Akro cork.

Looks like a Pelt Rainbo, but I’m no Pelt expert.

Same sentiments here - I’ll add those two to my lexicon for that cesspool of mis- & disinformation.

Last pics say Akro, auger type. Nice mib.

Wonky Vitro helmet.

Aptly named, apparently. These sellers seem to repeat a similar pattern - lots of semi-reasonable sounding offerings and then the occasional “gotcha” listing, hoping to hook a big lunker. Fishing must be lucrative.