Alan

Scoop: I discovered this when looking for a specific Simpson Planet. Since you said you prefer the pink - here is one: and Matthews Rectangles in Pink (didmyium?) glass.

Yes it is - it is a Blue New Mexico!

Anyone else collect Josh Simpson Planets? If so - post some pics!

From the photos - it is an "Ade" base - not the wispy white with clear one would find in a Popeye.

The colors in glass are imparted by glass colorants. Here are a few and their respective colors via glassalchemyarts:

Abundant and cheap silica and natural gas deposits. Just the raw materials needed to make marbles.

Correct - second link is the right one. Your bank account may be the poorer for it though!

Dollars to donuts I know the person described in the post as "Tim". He is no stranger to Akro digs. If there IS digging going on - expect wholesale lots to come available soon. It would be nice if some of these new digs could be documented as the material is found and removed. There is something to be learned (or lost) in most digs of this type.

A fair and interesting question. The conventional response has always been that "the spinner cup wasn't spinning". IMO (and I have no way to prove this concept) it would seem possible to me that the spinner cup failed to "catch" the glass streams and get them turning into the classic corkscrew pattern. Given that the spinner cup was made of graphite - it seems POSSIBLE that the spinner cup was turning and the glass entered the cup but rounded-up without turning the streams. On my Akro spinner cups there are hand-carved vertical ridges within the cup. They are relatively roughly done and I guessed that these were done by the operator. The purpose of the ridges appears to be to "catch" the color streams and get them turning to make a corkscrew. If the ridges were worn than it would seem logical that the corkscrew pattern would be weak or absent. In the last major dig at the Akro site a huge number of Popeye patches (blue) were found dumped. It is a matter of guesswork why such a large number would have been produced without noticing the problem/cause. They were all the same colors - thus probably off the same run/machine. They did not appear as nice as the photo in this thread.

Probably close to 40,000 marbles have come out of the Akro site on two different occasions before without the world coming to an end. Of anything dug - less than 5% are usually of a type and condition to merit strong collector interest. That leaves a lot of ballast that diggers will try to sell. I have seen full footlockers of Akro Supermen that the seller couldn't unload. The Ebay lot prose smacks of bitterness, backstabbing jealousy and blackmail. IMO it doesn not speak well of its author - whoever that is.

Scoop: Here is the Matthews Super Jetson:

I'll photo one of mine and put it in the Vaseline glass thread for you.

It goes to show - never write from memory! I pulled the Matthews pieces I got at Wheaton this year - an lo and behold - the Comedy and Tragedy is in vaseline glass (somehow clear stuck in my mind). I ALSO remembered (duh...) that I purchased a large Stars Air Trap in vaseline glass. Anyway - here is Comedy and Tragedy: Stars:

Thatks for the Mark link - I have not been aware of his work. Are the Muurray protos yours? I have two Man in the Moons - one with sunglasses. I'd LOVE to have the Monkeyman piece - very nice! I watched Bill make Man in the Moon piece at his Wheaton Village demo ~3-4 years ago. His mold technique was interesting. I hope he decides/is able to make marbles again. Thanks, Alan

Just a quick salute to Bill Murray - who unfortunately is not longer making marbles. Bill has a great eye for color and created some simple yet elegant and attractive designs and sold them at very fair prices. His Man in The Moon (not pictured) and mica pieces were great. Bill: If you ever decide to make marbles again - I'll be in line to buy your work!

As an aside - Mark Matthews still makes limited runs of vaseline glass Air Trap pieces. These include rectangles, fine bubbles, Jetson, spirals and a limited number of alphabet and integer sets. I'm probably forgetting others. Recently he made a group of "Comedy and Tragedy" theater mask air traps in clear - which I couldn't resist.

IMO - "Vaseline" is a term that is most popularly used by collectors of dishware to indicate the yellow color. It comes from adding uranium oxide to the batch formula. IIRC the green form comes from the addition of iron oxide to the "Vaseline" uranium oxide batch. For Akro Agate marbles - these are the predominant florescent base colors - although there are a few minority exceptions. Akro collectos have referred to the yellow florescent base as "Lemonade" for the obvious reason. The green florescent base has been popularly referred to as "Limeade". Keep in mind that there are other florescent glass colors such as "custard glass" (which is an opaque opalescent) that were not popular as glass marble cullet as the colors are not very bright. A LOT of lemonade cullet was found at the Akro site - however it tends to break into 1" pieces far more readily than other cullet colors - thus is seldom found in those big baked potato-sized cullet chunks. That has always made me speculate that lemonade/limeade base marbles will probably fracture more readily that other Akro glass formulas. There was one place by the back concrete wall that a guy tunneled under the factory slab floor (VERY dangerous) and found probably 100 lbs of lemonade cullet. In my experience limeade cullet is MUCH harder to find. The uranium oxide colorant is one of many colorants that were dangerous to humans (pre-OSHA) and the reason that the Akro site was designated a hazardous waste site.

Here is what vaseline (lemonade) and limeade glass look like in their raw state. This is Akro cullet photographed in sunlight only.

Its due to the similarity of color to a jar of Vaseline. Vaseline glass has an "other worldly" glow to it - even without the UV light. I suppose Vaseline is the closest commonly know product color to compare it to. I have some good sized vaseline cullet chunks from the Akro Agate site - they are pretty neat. I also have a large bizarre "alien green" florescent cullet from the Akro site.

I'm hoping. Its a bit of a drive for me - so I haven't been making them as regularly as I have in the past. Definitely a good show.

I agree - a Stankard is a piece that REALLY benefits from high resolution. I think they are quite difficult to truly appreciate without studying it closely in person. The Stankards have an amazing gift.

Sue: I absolutely agree. Here is the future owner of my collection passing time with Bert:

Here you go:

I was admiring some $3,000 - 4,000 pieces this year at the Wheaton Arts show. The artist noted that at that level - they were outside the marble collecting crowd and in the art glass circles.