ann

Not swirly enough for the multi-colored swirl name, is what Galen means. Looks like a regular Rainbo but in multi-colored-swirl colors (red, white, blue in green; and yellow, white, blue in green are the two main ones. Also orange, blue, white in green. . . ) Plainer ones like this one are taken to be later than the swirly ones. I don't know that for a fact, however. If I'm not mistaken, and I very well might be, since I've only assumed it until now -- I believe the fruit salad needs to be in a colorless base glass. Is that right?

I want to feel that way too. But I think I might have to have a red mica before I can say it with great feeling.

I'd been saying JABO wrong = jab -oh. Jay-bo still doesn't sound right to me . . .

I agree that anything over an inch would be unusual in micas -- When I was very actively buying them I remember very few being larger than 1".

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Solid red aventurine Alleys? HUH?

Right with ya . . .

PINK?? PINK?? OMG . . .

They come in pretty much most colors, although some are harder to find than others. Every variety of green, from forest and emerald to (harder to find) chartreuse and olive; dark blue, light blue, icy blue; turquoise or cyan; dark amber, golden amber, light amber, and a color Alan B. used to call "pilsen," and the HTF true yellow. Dark purple, medium purple, kinda HTF lavender; I have an oddball purple one I can only call grape, seriously different from the usual purple, but I don't know how hard it is to find. Colorless. Pale bottle green. Red is very, very HTF. . . and I've never seen or heard of a true orange mica. Since I don't collect large marbles, I'll leave the size stuff to others . . .

Something a little more down to earth ?

How weird! I found myself seeing it upside down as Great Britain and - and - and - and - Greenland after a terrible catastrophe?

Laying here in the weeds with bumblebee . . .

Unfortunately, they are also getting better at the pontils . . .

I wondered about that . . .

I always wonder about what might be wrong with the ones that look "oiled." I try to tell myself that maybe it's just a trick of the camera or something, but it doesn't really work. I still fret. Maybe my monitor too . . .

That's great! The only thing I have even close is an old Vaseline slag (probably Akro) that has a piece of metal on/in it just like your 4th pic, except about half that size! I love the crazy stuff . . .

I once crossed my fingers and held my breath while ducking an old unglazed china in some soapy water and scuffing it lightly with a toothbrush. Figured it wasn't worth anything the way it was, and I could just make out that some kind of decoration had been on it. I was in for a surprise. It whitened up nicely (not as white as a glazed one would be) and revealed that the now-faded but obvious decoration was a pinwheel. I don't think I've ever used a black light on my Chinas. What have I been thinking?? Work work work work . . .

A pleasure to meet someone else who isn't interested in large marbles . . .

Me too.

I feel the need to defend my claim to Southerninity. Should be a word, even if it's not. Born & raised in eastern N.C. with as much water around as land, Blackbeard tales, and the Outer Banks a Sunday afternoon drive away. Clumps of college years and drifting in Florida (Tallahassee, Delray Beach, Islamorada, Jacksonville Beach). We got our first air conditioner when I was in high school when the parents put in central heating & cooling. Before then we had a roaring exhaust fan upstairs that sucked all the hot air out, aided in the daytime by a system of awnings and blinds and shade from the pecan trees in the yard. I have simply, as a good friend recently put it, "Been trapped behind Union Lines since 1980."

Me neither!

Best guess is impurities in the clay. Pure kaolin will give you white (porcelain), but a touch of iron or something else in it would give you an off-white to tan color once it was fired. I don't know that any were deliberately made that way, but then I don't know everything. Don't remember Paul Bauman mentioning it in his antique marbles book . . . which is basically what I go by.

Just got another nice cork --

I love those!

It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out it was a Winlock marble. I have several -- but I don't remember whether or not he signed them. I'll look. Some Winlock marbles do interesting things under black light. If you have such a light, try it!