semdot

Yes I have seen a couple blue-based clowns too but never one (green or blue) that was true opaque. True, some of them are pretty hard to see pass the surface. Try focused sunlight?

Clowns are never on opaque black it is always a transparent green. Many are very dark green which looks black but some are less dark and appear transparent.

It has all the right colors but not the usual pattern. I don't have an issue with him calling this a clown, although clown variation or blended clown might be more exact. It's not like the bottom will drop out of the clown market from the introduction of this type, since this is the only one I have seen. To me this is like the difference between MK spiderman and blended spiderman. It's not as pretty as mainstream clowns imo.

Better if you attached a picture, but yes, I think carnellean oxbloods are slightly more common that blue oxbloods or eggyoke oxbloods... or maybe about the same.

Buffing is done with light buffing compound or with 10,000-40,000 grit so it can only remove light haze but not any significant amount of glass. The pontils are untouched, the marble is the original out-of-round, and the original creases and surface waves are still there. When collectors say a marble is polished, they usually mean it has been through sphere grinding then polished. The pontil marks were removed. The pontils can be restored to some extent, but they never look like the original pontils. They simply rough up the marble where the pontils used to be. Not to hard to tell the difference on a handmade. Much more difficult for machine made marbles.

Buttcrack collectors <- Things that make you say, "Hmmm."

The Flinties that I have seen had two eyes on opposite sides. The shell appeared mostly opaque. The eye and the inside of the marble was more clear. A maglight held up to the eye lites up the inside and makes the whole marble glow. Very cool.

Look! Up in the sky! It's Super man-boy!

I agree with everybody :|

A little like the bird cages, but I remember higher quality. The bubbles and doughnut were very well made and symetrical. Thanks for sharing the bird cages though. Sweet.

Yup very similar to the one I saw. It was not known to be a Mark Mathews marble at the show. It was certainly not signed.

I saw a handmade at a show once, really wish I had a picture. It was a large clear base handmade with two air bubbles inside. One bubble was in the shape of an hourglass almost filling the marble end to end. The other bubble formed a doughnut around the wasp-waist of the hourglass without touching it. I seem to remember a light pink and a light blue involved in the design too, but it was a long time ago. It looked like a glassblower masterwork.

I se what you say about that marble being "messy." Thanks for pointing that out.