themarblelady

Hey Cathy!!!! Great to see you posting...

I'm gonna work on getting out your way for the show next spring. If it works, it'll be great to see you!!!

I'll always think of Larry & Marlow as the guys who put machine made marbles on the map. I believe they created so many more terms than they'll ever be credited for...

Simply because "taking credit" wasn't their objective...

Just getting the info out there, enjoying the hobby and getting the marbles appreciated was all that mattered.

They were never given credit by the more popular, known "Experts" who sucked the information out of them, took it and ran, leaving them in the dust....

I would cherish that signed book, too!!! Those words are so much more true than anyone could ever believe....

I know, cuz I was there, in that time-frame, too....

'Love Ya, Honey!!! 'Hugs to (your) Larry!!!

Hey great to hear from you too Sue! Larry says to tell you hello and for you to come and see our marble room at the Toy Museum here in Kansas City...you'll love it! We have a guest room....Hugs...Cathy

Hi,

I have two marbles and I just don't know what they are. The first one has a matte finish. It's not glass. There are no pontil marks and it is not signed. It measures 7/8".

The second one also has no pontil marks and no signature. This one isn't glass either and it has a glossy finish. It has crackling throughout the middle band. It measures 1 1/4".

I don't know if these are modern marbles or older ones. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hey....one way you can tell these are newer is by the color pallets. Look at photos of old chinas and scenic marbles. (Because these are not glass) Without touching them I can't tell, but the blue and green one could even by the baked sculpey clay like I use with children at school when we are making Kindness Marbles.

I have begun putting together my favorite positve and wonderful marble experiences. I would love to hear from some of you...I would eventually like to make a simple video of these stories to put in the Marble Room at the Toy and Miniature Museum. I want to show the positive power of marbles and I would like to document for our posterity how these simple spheres have brought so many smiles into so many lives. Anyone can respond here or to my email, [email protected] Thanking you in advance for anyone that is willing to share. And if you want to call and tell your story to me...I'll type it out! Hugs to all who recognize the positive power of these simple spheres we call marbles! Cathy The Marble Lady

interesting. I had wondered what would prompt men to use the term. So that was in the 80's?

Actually I first started helping them in the mid to late 80's...not only was I one of the few female collectors, but my speciality was machine mades and I took a LOT of ribbing for that ....until...suddenly, my phone was ringing off the hook for information about machine mades! Larry and Marlow begged me to write a book on machine mades...but as a single mother of 5 and working 4 part time jobs to support my family and keep my house...I didn't have time...but I promised them I would help them all I could....they took me up on my offer and I was so proud of them when the first book came out. But...it was still pretty general in a lot of ways....we spent many more hours of study and conversing on more details such as "the diaper fold" and so then they wrote the same inscription in the next printing....but they were fast learners and wherever or whatever I suggested they research or look into...they did that and much more. The Diaper fold experience occured in the early 90's at the Amana show. I would have wondered too! lol The Marble Lady

I was at the Amana Marble Show and Larry Castle and Marlow had asked me to help them with a book they were working on for machine made marbles. We were sitting in Larry's room and he was asking me about Christensens and how one could tell and his wife was changing his baby's diaper on the bed at the time. She was using cloth diapers and as she pulled the diaper up and was getting ready to pin it on the sides...I pointed to the curved edge of the diaper and told him the line was similar to that. Never did I imagine they would use that term in their book! You had to be there and you had to see the situation I was referring to or you would never understand where it came from. Anyway, when their book came out I got a good laugh out of that term....but I also appreciated both Larry and Marlow signing my book with the following words, "To the one person who knows more about these than we do!" I still treasure that copy...especially since Larry passed away. So just in case anyone ever wondered where that came from...I was there and I said it...sorry! lol