ann

I've never seen one. Kool!

A black-based marble can be black with colors swirled in. Different colors of glass don't mix with each other very easily.

The veneer isn't necessarily molten glass. Think glass pigment and spray nozzles.

Nice! Examples like that, some of the Greek glass "mosaic" bowls, and Roman "face" beads were what I was thinking of in terms of elaboration . . . not a specific technique like cane-pick-up. My knowledge is basically ancient metalwork. But without seeing any more, I'm pretty sure I'd like to have your entire collection of ancient glass! A cranky old art historian (northern & western Asia) with some archeological background. Ann Nice to meet you!

And jeeze, winnie, you killin' me with those wirepulls of yours!

Well, just you wait, if you haven't put those Ultras under a UV light yet. They're HOT as heck! I may have a couple of variations -- I'll see if I have any spares tonight . . .

Well then, I'll just finish getting this off my chest. Mibs, you may have felt that "Why can't they keep the white out of all of them?" was constructive criticism, but it can also sound like the Jabo b....ing we are all too familiar with. Besides, not everyone is white-averse when it comes to marbles. And if you didn't like what you were seeing with Jabo's special runs, and really cared, you could have had a say in them. Many people did just that. I also took offense at your response to Edna. It sounded much more like a personal attack than a criticism of Jabo. If you'll reread it now, maybe you'll be able to see that. And "What Burt and Edna said" about the marbles themselves. The colors go through and through. Some marbles in some of the runs are ALSO veneered on top of that. And sprayed with colored frit, or dusted with aventurine, and any number of other substances, "to see what would happen." Maybe you just haven't seen enough examples of the investor runs. But I wouldn't worry about it. They're pretty much finished. Don't ever buy anything you don't like. ann

Okee doakey!

An early Joker oxblood run has some that resemble wirepulls, and so does the Ultra run. To my knowledge, they're not considered wirepulls, though. Are your Jabos from either of those runs?

Although you may not find it satisfactory, what sissydear said IS the answer. The base glass is obviously the foundation color for the marble, and white is a common foundation color, for obvious reasons -- color laid over white will be truer than color laid over blue, or yellow, or any other base color, and if it's not overlaid but swirled in with white, white provides a high contrast that many people find appealing. Innumerable color combinations, with and without white, have come out of the Jabo runs sponsored by patrons. For the most part, color choices and combinations have been at the discretion of the patrons of the run, within the constraints of what is possible with the materials at hand and the glass knowledge of Dave McCullough. Some runs have produced some genuinely spectacular single marbles, as well as beautiful "famlies" or types. I'm sorry you haven't seen any.

Also not buying anything at the moment, but after the holidays, I can see myself being selfish again. In fact, I plan on it. But . . . do you make marbles as small as 1 1/8? That's as big as I go . . . just curious, because I like what I've seen of your work . . .

If you're still interested, I have two I can send you. They both have slight feathering here and there. They're not exactly the same color of aqua, but neither one is that pale color of blue that looks aqua . . . until you roll it up to a real aqua one. Be happy to send them to you for you to decide if they would work for you. Gone until after Thanksgiving, but PM me and I'll get back to you next week. I actually have three, but the third one looks too small for a match -- Ann

I've studied ancient Egyptian and Roman glass (most of which was actually made in Syria) and work this complicated (and more complicated) has been found in securely dated excavations, althugh never in mass quantities. Luxury items.

AlkaSeltzer marble!

Roman glass was pretty sophisticated -- long history (Egypt, Near East) by then.

Haven't seen boxes and boxes of CAC slags, but for the time being, I'm stickin' with the one-or-two seam theory. For machine mades. I'd like to see lots of evidence of CAC producing machine-made slags with no seams, especially in any numbers. Waitin' for Hansel. If there are machine-made CAC slags with no seams, then unless they're found in original packaging I don't imagine they could be told from Akro. Unless the color was absolutely one that only Christensen produced. In which case nearly any box could be backfilled with Akro and no one would be the wiser.

If the slags were Christensen, I'd think at least one would be seam-side up. Not seeing any. I'd say odds against the slags being correctly identified . . . don't know nuttin about no 'merican agates.

A pic would be cool! A latticinio core in a cloud? That sounds like it could be interesting . . .

Oh my, nice slaggage . . .

Hmmmmmm . . . let me check tonight when I get home . . .

So the core is a colorless translucent area surrounded by white latticinio threads? Huh. I've seen the occasional transparent colored "jelly" core thingees surrounded by latticinio threads, but that's as close as my memory can come right now, without the application of additional stimulants . . . Curious. Offhand, I'd say it wasn't an effect the maker was striving for. And that the shopkeeper is probably gonna have it for a while longer, at that price!

Looks more like a hit / blowout than a pontil . . .

Micas are one of my favorites (one of the first types I started collecting), and as far as I know they are. I've never seen one in person, only heard that they exist. Usually the closest thing you can find (and they're rare too) is a light or medium gray. What a beauty! I'm going to hate you for the next five minutes, then I'll get over it. Maybe. Congrats!

I don't remember the term "ghost core" being used with anything but micas . . . I figure you'd have mentioned mica if there was any . . . is the base glass or the translucent core colored? Any outside banding or anything?

My pleasure, Nancy! Nothing quite like a bird in the hand, as They say!