lopacki

I have purchased quite a few marbles from old nurse and have no complaints what so ever. This auction and others under oldnurse85c are consignment items. All my best .. Danny

Ann, I look forward to seeing it, hopefully it will need very little reconditioning. All my best .......... Danny

Steph, I never thought of looking at the marbles under black light before and after, next time I work on some I will test it out and let you know the results. All my best ...... Danny

I see no reason someone would go to the trouble of making fake boxes unless there was huge money involved. Looking at the boxes they do not look reproduced to me. IMHO All my best .......... Danny

The third marble leaves a bit to be desired, I have contacted the owner and offered to grind it down a bit more but have warned them in doing so I will most likely pop into the ends. size 1.72 inch 43.66 mm

This second marble finished is 38.75 mm 1.52 inch

Ann mentioned awhile ago that she was thinking of perhaps having a marble that she owned conserved/reconditioned but was not sure if she should. I told Ann that I was getting ready to work on a few marbles and told her that when they were done I would put up before and after images. If I have a marble that I think will be improved with a bit of work I do the work and I think that the results are usually far better than the piece I started with. Please tell me what you think. The marbles were sent to me for work, the first images are of an onionskin that was in terrible shape and all out of round. The finished size is 1.58 inch 40.16 mm All my best .... Danny

I am going to post these and other conserved or reconditioned elsewhere and still am but I just had to chime in on this. I see that some people think that all you do is re-polish a marble and then your done. I beg to disagree if all it took was polishing there would be far more new looking marbles out there than there are. I am not going to tell exactly all of the processes I do on a hand made marble that needs help but they are many, the most important in my opinion is the balancing of the outer glass prior to all of the finish stages. If this is done properly and with care you maintain all of the interior and never touch it. I think that many times you come up with the marble the maker wanted to start with but because they were in a production environment they could not take the time to make masterpieces, in reworking/conserving you have the chance of showing this masterpiece at its best. I watched a video on youtube one time and this gentleman showed people how easy it was to redo a marble, trouble being he just popped it into a 3 head machine and let it rip, after some time in the rough grind he took it out said it needed more and put it back in, by the time he was done he had totally ruined the marble. Needless to say he thought all you had to do was make it round again ............ WRONG!! You will notice that the onionskin I have attached was nearly worthless, I think that after my work on it, it is much more desirable. What do you think. All my best .......... Danny

You are right they are called hallmarks, most makers even in a production environment put a hallmark on their products. It is nearly always the case with gold and silver and as you say many other metal items. All my best ...... Danny P.S. My hallmark is Lopacki in script as seen on this silver whistle I made for my grand daughter.

I do not think I would pay much more that thirty dollars as it is, if pristine it would be a different story but even then I'd be out of the bidding when it went over 65.00. All my best ............ Danny

I purchased a plastic bag like this a few weeks ago and as soon as it arrived I could clearly see that the paper label was new and the whole thing was a rip off, the marbles inside were trash. As they say buyer beware. All my best ...... Danny

Rich, I conserve marbles without heating and can assure you that there is no way that bubbles will appear as the marble is being worked on in this way. I personally think this is a new marble and get tired of seeing all of the new marbles on ebay that are being called old German. Two times I have purchased new old marbles, the first time it was my fault, the second time it was misrepresented and the person would not give a refund so they got negative feedback. All my best ...... Danny

Ann, You can send it out and I will take a look, if I think it won't work you can always go the heat route. I have found on most badly damaged marbles as long as there is still clear glass over the threads they will balance out. Sometimes I have to leave a few minor chips so I do not cut into the color on the poles. You can send me good images via email and I can give you my opinion, make sure you give me six sides. All my best ..... Danny

Ann, As you have seen from some of the marbles I have conserved, if the marble is really messed up to start with and a little reworking brings it back to its beauty, why not do it. You then have a piece of beautiful artwork to fondle in your hands or put in a window sill. I am getting ready to do some more truly bad marbles I will post before and after images and put it up for a vote. I bet you a nice marble......... that reworked will get the most votes for being better. All my best ........... Danny Attached are images of a large German marble bead I reworked for a friend, I assure you that he much prefers the reworked bead and so do I. P.S. No heat used

Mike, I have never seen these colors in a Josephs coat, not saying they don't come with these colors but I've never seen them. I know there are a few sellers on Ebay that sell new marbles and say for example "Onion skin" ? to cover their butt and most of these sellers will not take returns, so if this marble was purchased off of Ebay I'd have to say it is new handmade. IMHO All my best ...... Danny

Don't know if you sell these or not if so I have an interest. All my best ............ Danny

I am just trying to help you out on this. The red beads in the image I posted are 1 1/4 inch. As I said these beads were purchased about seven years ago. I have been doing business in China since 1987 and many times I have seen them selling things at what had to be a loss, this said they are trying to keep nearly 1 billion people busy doing something even if they loose money so again I think these beads are current Chinese production and are far nicer than anything I have seen in the past. My main reason for saying this is the canes used in them, they do not look like Venetian canes they look like Chinese canes. I am attaching images of Chinese canes and also in my hand Venetian canes. Again I hope this helps All my best ............ Danny P.S. I will go to the bead forum and beg for an image fo this type bead in someones hand as I'd love to have the marble!!!

I would say normal. IMHO All my best .... Danny

Perhaps my friend meant less than 5.00 each, in reality he said 2 to 3 dollars so I would guess he did in fact mean each. I have attached an image of three strands of beads I purchased at Tucson some years ago when the Chinese were first starting to market this type bead. I can't remember what I paid for them but it was very little per strand, little enough that I made some of the into drawer pulls for the benches in my new shop. All my best .......... Danny

I just talked to a good friend that is also part of the bead forum I belong to. They said without a doubt these are modern Chinese and that strands were available at last years Tucson show for less than $5.00 a strand. Hope this helps you ........... All my best ....... Danny

Being a bead collector I personally think they are modern Chinese and will post an image on a bead forum and see what feedback I get. All my best .......... Danny

I have conserved quite a few hand mades that had no pontil marks as purchased I have also done some for a few people. Here is a large marble that I just did, many times I will leave some of the dings so I do not intrude into the ends. The person I did this marble for was thrilled and I feel that this marble is far more desirable than prior to my work on it. I use many techniques in my conservation work and depending on what needs to be done I rarely cut into the end color. This marble lost less than 1/16 inch finished size 53.25mm or just slightly over 2 inches All my best .. Danny I agree with the loupe being a must.

That's worse than collecting rocks, just ask me I have tons of them and most aren't worth much. Danny

Here is my favorite single marble. All my best ........... Danny

Gnome, Go to this link for all you need to know about how to make your own machine. http://www.rockhounds.com/rockshop/reviews/adams_marble_maker/index.shtml All my best .............. Danny