ann

Bump?

Yep -- very. Especially since the last 5 I was giving him 2 insulin shots a day, every day . . . (My pharmacist gave him the senior citizen discount on his supplies!)

Now that it's off the market, and officially not mine, here's the lovely agate Dave was referring to on ebay earlier in the thread. Did you get it, Dave?

I like the package idea -- including the Mega net.

Yep. At the time I had some flexibility, so as much as possible, I scheduled my life around the tide charts. I was a much better person then! Speaking of Zen.

Great kitty! The great ones are particularly missed. Still mourning my Abyssinian familiar of 18 years. Still think I glimpse him out of the corner of my eye, sometimes. Tip of the tail disappearing into the bathroom, for example. So he's still around, kinda.

I was a shark-tooth chick myself. Combing the coquina just after high tide, every possible day!

All well here, thanks. Just heavy wind gusts, rain, and some spectacular cloud-to-cloud lightning. High-rise city views do have some advantages! Not good about 60 miles due west. Destruction and mayhem, although so far only one fatality. Good early tornado warnings and people heeding them. But lots of damage. Jacksonville, Florida? Or North Carolina? Lived in Jacksonville Beach, FL, for a year, and north of Jacksonville, NC, for my first 17 years on earth. (At least to my knowledge.)

Maybe an old trophy would be nice, too. As a former museum person, I can tell you that standard glass shelves (no matter how many) can be very limiting, in terms of visual appeal -- especially for something as (comparatively) small as marbles. I would suggest varying the heights of the marbles on each shelf as much as possible. Having clear plexiglass tubes with bases fabricated for the purpose (from 1" up to 6" or 8" tall) isn't as expensive as you might think. Easier and safer to use (but somewhat more $$) are, say, 1" square solid blocks at the same heights that have had shallow cups machined into the top to hold the marbles. Try calling around to various glass installation companies in your area. Including graphics (mounted on the back wall of the case, if possible, rather than standing on the shelf) like those mentioned above (Life, Saturday Evening Post) will help too. Have a few big marbles, as Steph suggests. Given the "game aspect" of the display, though, I'd try to keep as many as possible to playing size. Although a few peewees could be fun. Above all, I'd say choose the very best and most striking examples you can possibly come up with, the more brilliantly-colored the better. And remember that more is not necessarily better. Fewer well-chosen examples are more likely to "showcase" each one, and emphasize the marbles in a way that "lots" can't. Finally, make sure that the very best aspect of each marble is the one presented to the viewer. You'd be surprised how important that last detail can turn out to be.

Thanks, Lou!

This morning = 40 degrees, fog, rain, lightning, wind. Now (5:15 pm Central time) 70 degrees and sunny. Tonight = tornados. As if I needed any more evidence that I live in the wrong place.

That would be great!

Yep.

Yep.

Agree.

I miss the one with a brown paper bag over its head. I could have used that recently. Can we get them back, Steph? And maybe the roll-on-floor one?

The 1923 date in Hellmers' book for transparent selenium ruby at / from Christensen Agate has puzzled me for awhile. Although Jenkins was granted a machine patent in 1924, CAC wasn't officially founded until 1925. And if the formula's source was by a glass man (Fiedler) we think was so well-known -- and Hellmers certainly knew or knew of Fiedler -- wouldn't he have noted that too, as he did on the four formulae he directly attributed to Fiedler? Apparently the first "commercially-viable" selenium ruby was produced by Henry Hellmers at Cambridge Glass.. And what the heck. Where's Steph's "can of worms" smiley? Oh, might as well . . . better than working . . . I suspect that Fiedler's high reputation may not be entirely deserved. And I am not alone. You know who you are . . . Not that he wasn't good, mind you. I mean, what spectacular marbles some CACs are. And maybe by the time he got to CAC, he was given free-enough rein (and enough money) to develop their electric colors. And so forth. But consider: Yes, Fiedler initially was at Akro Agate. But who was hired by Akro in 1921 straight out of school to replace him? Henry Hellmers. And I suspect that if, at that time, Fiedler's colors had been generally superior in any way, then Hellmers would have written down (or tried) more than four. But just a suspicion. Sellars Peltier hired Fiedler to set up (hand-gathered) marble production at Peltier Glass. After a great deal of difficulty and expense (some of which is documented in a long and amusing letter in the Pelt safe papers, which a few others of you have also seen, and all might see someday -- including the trials & tribulations of the development of the Cerise, the Prima Agate, and the Onyx), Sellers Peltier himself took over and Arnold was . . . let go. And we've just had a good and interesting discussion on CAC's use of Cambridge glass. And in 1930 Hellmers was hired to be the glass chemist at Cambridge. about the time CAC apparently was falling apart. Anyway, I think there's certainly enough information now to make us wonder. Be interesting to await developments.

That is a beauty!

I can see that naked pink tail going by my elbow to this day.

I've seen similar Champions . . .

Yep. Might light up under UV light.

I like the term "littermates," too.

I like it.