richsantaclaus

Wolfgang Mueller As a professional geologist, I collect my rocks and minerals and I make them into perfectly round marbles. I am called a Mineral Marble Maker. My marble is made from marble (metamorphosed limestone, consisting chiefly of recrystallized calcite or dolomite, capable of taking a high polish, occurring in a wide range of colors and varigations and used in sculpture and architecture). My marble is from a marble quarry in the town of Marble Colorado in the United States. So, it is a marble marble from Marble Colorado! What makes it a Marble 2 Die 4 is that the same marble that I made this marble out of is the same marble used in the making of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington!

Mike Johnson My marble is called a Ravenswood marble. I was at the Ravenswood dumpsite and there was a lake there. I was standing in 3 ½’ to 4’ of water in the lake, bending over, digging in the mud for marbles and marble cullet I was collecting. Searching, focused and totally concentrating on gathering all I could in this waist-deep water, I didn’t notice a coal barge that was quickly passing by near my position in the water. Soon, without my noticing it, a big wave from the barge’s wake washed over me making me fall under the water. I couldn’t breath and fought myself up to the surface of the water to get air. I breathed in a little water into my lungs as I struggled to my feet but finally coughed it out after a while. I was soaking wet but I had this marble still gripped between my fingers. It IS a Marble 2 Die 4 because I almost did die for it!

Bennie Jones This marble is a Marble King Company Cub Scout with a thin band of oxblood color. When I first started gathering marbles, I had thousands of them. If I saw any marbles I just bought them without caring what their names were or what company made them. One day at a garage sale, I met two men, Bud Cloven and Bo Stiff. They noticed I was buying marbles and they struck-up a conversation with me about the marbles. Soon they both realized I knew nothing about the marbles I had been buying. We three got together on several days afterward, and Bud and Bo helped me to learn the names of the marbles I had and the marble company that made them. It was marble history coming alive to me! A few weeks later I had the chance to buy out a storage building that had 30,000 marbles inside, among other items. I jumped at the chance to buy them, sight unseen. I separated the marbles as best I could and found around 1,000 of these Cub Scout colored marbles and placed them in a container for later inspection. I finally got the chance, with the help of Bud and Bo, to go through the container and do final sorting on the Cub Scouts. To my surprise, I found only 4 Cub Scouts that had a stripe of oxblood color in them. My Cub Scout collection had only .4% with the oxblood stripe so I am donating one of these marbles to the Marbles 2 Die 4 coffin because it is so rare to fine one!

Jim Perez and Preston Norman This marble is a Vacor marble made in Mexico, a foreign marble. The Vacor marble makers call it a Cub Scout marble. What we feel is that it is a BIG rip-off! The color design is messy and shiny and that the original Peltier Marble Company is being ripped-off by this poor quality of a reproduction. We are tired of seeing poor craftsmanship like in this marble and wish they’d stop! We are tired of the copying of the old machine made marbles like this one that companies like this are doing. It is true that when they make their own designs, the marbles look pretty good in all but copying just isn’t right. We feel that this marble deserves to be in the Marbles 2 Die 4 coffin.

Dave Evans When I was in my early twenties, I was very poor. One day all I had was 10 dollars in my pocket and had the rest of the day to find something to do that I felt was interesting and wouldn’t cost much money. I was strolling along and saw a flea market so I thought I could go look at stuff and not spend any money and it would be fun! I wondered across a vendor’s table with marbles for sale. I scanned quickly and discovered the cheapest group of marbles was $30! Then I saw it – a mesh bag of green marbles that had green sparkles in a broad stripe on each marble. The sparkles shined in the sunlight. My eyes wouldn’t leave that bag. I was mesmerized and stood there staring for 10 minutes at that bag of marbles. All the while, the lady that was selling marbles at her table was quietly looking at me, keeping an eye on me as she tended other people that were buying her marbles. After 10 minutes of eyeing and desiring the marbles, I got the courage to ask her if I could actually touch the bag and check out the marbles closer. She let me hold and inspect the bag. They were beautiful. I was lost in the sunshine as the sparkles seem to put me into a trance. Time seemed to stand still for me. Finally I snapped out of my dream and summoned the courage to ask her how much money she wanted for the bag of green marbles I was holding. My stomach seemed to be full of fluttering butterflies. She stood there just staring at me for a minute before she spoke. It felt like forever to me while I waited. It seemed the world stood still and I stopped breathing. The lady finally said to me after a minute, “You are a young man and don’t have a lot of money - do you?” I said nothing but lowered my head. She waited another 30 seconds then said, “I’ll sell that bag of green marbles to you for $1.” I couldn’t believe what she said and had to control my arm muscles not to jam my hand in my pocket to get the $1 and give it to her as fast as humanly possible. It took all of my inner strength not to jump up and down and start yelling at the top of my lungs how happy I was to get this bag of marbles. I paid her and, under the best control I could muster, I walked away but I heard her telling someone at the table, “It sure made that young man happy to get those marbles didn’t it!” This marble I am donating to the coffin IS a Marble 2 Die 4!

Marbles 2 Die 4 (12 fictional stories based on facts from marble collectors and for your enjoyment) by Rich Shelby Have you ever had a marble, that special one, which has an interesting story that is personal to you? A marble that carries a memory of something that brings strong feelings that live inside your emotions? The following are 12 stories that I have asked passionate vintage marble collectors to tell me about. I made a little coffin, painted it black, placed black foam at the top to keep the marbles in place and a coffin shaped foam board with twelve 5/8” holes to hold the marbles in place. Now it is time to read the stories about the Marbles 2 Die 4 that are in the coffin. Leo Contreras My Marble 2 Die 4 is called a Parrot made by the Vitro Marble Company. At least I think so! For ten years I have owned this marble and for ten years this marble has been the center of an identifying controversy. I know the name of this marble depends on the number of colors and what the colors are. I have had various interpretations about this marble. Some very passionate marble collectors have argued for over an hour what the correct name of this marble! It seems to be a very controversial marble since the expert marble collectors can’t seem to agree to what the exact name of my marble is. They want me to accept the name they give this marble as a name given by consensus instead of actually knowing what the real name of the marble is. This marble is going to be the death of me so I am giving it to you to go into the Marbles 2 Die 4 coffin box and now it’s your turn to carry on the task of finding this marble’s correct name – I am DONE with it!!!

Very nice marble - thanks for posting pictures of it!

I don't know Fo, but I know Fe and Fi!

Thanks - I got all of these 3 mibs for $1.50 - lucky find I think!

Marble #3 I haven't seen a 2-color cork before so I got this one for my cork collection.

Marble #2 - I really liked the amber clear color in this cork

I am trying to find better marbles that are not common and I found these three - did I meet my goal? Marble #1 - don't know the name... maybe MK?

Thank you guys - it only took 1 hour 15 minutes to fix it behind 1450 degrees F at my torch. My wrist was very tired twisting a 3" marble that long!

I am guessing a bullet shaped paper weight. It really was in sad shape with the 3 major cracks in 3 different directions.

I was given a Jesus sulphide piece of glass that was broken in 3 different places with major crack lines. The glass was in the shape of a bullet and the person wanted a repair and it made into a marble. It finished at 3" in diameter! What do think of it?

Is this enough or do you guys want more?

pix 4 - this completes showing you the entire show's floor layout.

Pix 3

pix 2

I have to start the show's pictures by showing you the 2 big rooms where the hotel opened the folding door that separated them. It's about 8:30am and the show opened at 9am so you can see people setting up. A few waited until 8:45am to start! There were 44 six foot tables for the vendors. I'll post more later - I am pooped for now!

I've seen that marble in person too - what a BEAUTIFUL piece of art!

It's a very nice marble.

Thank you Dave - it's finally nice to meet you! I taught Geology at middle school (grades 6-8) and specialized on the 8th graders until California took Geology and separated into 2 halves, one taught at 6th grade and the other 1/2 at 9th grade. I then had to do only chemistry, physics and astronomy with the kids. I hope you do post more since it is fun here 99% of the time I have found. Most are eager to help us beginners (one year collecting for me) and I look forward to others help. Thanks again Rich

If you start with a clear ball core, flatten it into a disk, have the colors that you want twisted already made to apply on the disk. Swipe the colors only 3/4 of the diameter but make it off center, say 1/4" to the right. Have a ball of clear hot and mash it on top of the disk making the other side of the marble. Round it out into a ball again. Now, punty up at the top, removing the punty that held the disk and melt it in. Punty up the bottom 180 degrees from the punty on the top. Let the punties get a bit cool while you heat the center circumference so the heat gets into the center of the marble with a very thin flame. Take the marble out of the flame and slowly twist one punty clockwise, the other counter clockwise and try to get an even looking spiral inside. Move your heat to the right of center keeping the twist even then move to the left, again keeping the twist even. Burn off one punty so it leave a little puntil mark, round 5/8 of the marble. Make a cold punty attachment and burn off the other punty again leaving a pontil mark. Put it into the kiln to soak for at least and hour to anneal. Take 7 1/2 hours to cool to 400 degrees F and open the kiln to cool to room temperature. Here are 2 that are kinda similar but I try not to create the exact same thing the old marble makers did. Also, if you don't want the color to go evenly, apply it just short of being even and the color ribbons won't go all the way to the top like in your marble.

I sure wish those 5 had made the connection clear to me Winnie like you explained it - thanks so much - I just LOVE learning!!!!! As I move through the learning curve, I need a short explanation besides just a name so I can know what to look for in other marbles.