Shamrock Marbles

1) CAC 100%. Checks all my boxes for color, striations, pattern (flame) and surface. 2) Honest surface. No signs of polishing. 3) The “grooves” you are seeing is where the hot glass stream is surface cooling before it can meld to the previous glass gob. Imagine taking a wet spaghetti noodle and dropping it in your hand. 100% natural. 4) Love that salmon color with the dark olive!! Congrats!! -John

Brian Graham used marble fuel and time warped to retrieve a marble machine from Peltier. 😉

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zJLFGeeODwg 😃

Now, don’t get me wrong, but I would love to have American Marble and Toy samples in my collection. I think they are awesome and would love to find them in the wild. Great video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0iFwEHfRqHw

Why would a manufacturer make a toy jug (typically used to hold ales and spirits) and toy clay pipes? Because they sell. Akro made glass tea sets, so children can mimic the adults and hone their social skills like hospitality and politeness. Manufacturers placed ads in comics for x-ray glasses. Was this so you can see if your dog has a broken leg? No, it was to exploit the “curiosity” of adolescents. Children want to “act” grown up. They will mimic the adults in their lives. Manufacturers will exploit those desires for dollars. It’s an age old game. YMMV.

Keepers for sure. May you always fondly remember your friend.

Sweet toy jug sample. Nothing like indoctrinating kids to drink spirits like pappy. I remember getting candy cigarettes at 7-Eleven!! Same thing, but a different decade. We spend our youth trying to grow up. And spend our adulthood trying to reclaim childhood.

2. Depending on the glass chemistry, the temperature (viscosity) and/or the distance traveled, two glasses can interact and create a third color at the boundary layer. This can be seen on Peltier Superman marbles. There is usually a dark line between the yellow/blue and the red/blue. Now, there are Akro hybrids where another color is actually introduced as they switch over colors. Reference Popeye Hybrids. Sorry, but your sample is not one of those lucky samples. Beautiful sample, though! P.S. The blue and orange are across the color wheel from each other. This creates a complimentary tension. Your marble is a keeper. Now, try to find five more samples. This is what makes collecting fun! Good luck!! 🍀

Love the double-ingot! I have an affinity for oddball specimens. Great group. Keep adding more!!

I’m afraid your dream would be my nightmare. I see myself busting in, only to find a group of starving zombie hobos.

That pink stripe sample is delicious.

Jesse, Are you making jellyfish marbles now? Would love to see more of Mike’s work (and yours too). Here is an old post about Mike’s passing: https://marbleconnection.com/topic/12770-the-best/ -John

My apologies, I missed this post. Yes, those are mine and very early in my journey, circa 2003. The twin cut line was from how I made those first marbles. A telltale can be seen in the first and last pictures. In the first picture, look closely at the green glass. There is a line of micro-bubbles running parallel to the white. In the third photo, you can see the bubbles in the yellow glass running parallel to the white glass. More info to come…

As a former Hoosier and FW resident: Go Saints!!

When mentioning the “coverage”, are you referring to one side having more blue than another side? If so, that is physical reality of the glass stream pattern and how it piles up. If you have a random or chaotic gather then you get a wire pull marble. Take that same stream and coil the gather and you get a flame marble. Fundamentally the same marble with a different outcome. You’ll see a strong “presentation” side and a weak “backside”. Here’s a CA Flame with a nice presentation side and a blank backside. Hope I explained myself clearly. -John

A beauty. I consider these to be constructed like a European Wirepull, but with an opaque base versus a transparent. I am a big fan of 2 glass marbles. This definitely would be a keeper. Complex, but simple. Or is it simply complex?

Thanks! That marble had the same birthday as yours. Just different glass and a variation on the “gather”. Version 2 will be more distinct.

Bullseye glass. Diameter = 1-5/16”

I can relate to Alan’s inquiry, but I’m seeing something different. Without having this marble in hand plus the benefit of great lighting and magnification, my opinion is just an opinion and open to change. What I am seeing is a remelted marble. If this marble is over 5/8” diameter, then it could be made with 2 marbles or a couple of dig artifacts. CAC swirl marbles show strong striated glass. When this glass gets reheated, the glass relaxes and starts to flow in multiple directions, thus losing the fine definition it once had. CAC swirls usually show where the stream was severed. There is no sign of a cut line. There appears to be a zone where a punty was attached and the marble spun in a mold. As always, YMMV. -John

This photo is phenomenal. It clearly shows both ends of the glass stream. Stunning!

Shawn, Thank you for the update. Hoping for a quick recovery. Looking forward to your Father posting soon. -John

Corks have a twist. When looking at a end, the twist will either be Left-handed or Right-handed like the threads on a screw. Right-hand twist: Left-hand The ratio is how many RH to LH marbles you have. Your first photo group of 17 marbles, your RH:LH ratio is: 6:11.

Sweet specimens! Have you noted the RH to LH twist ratio?

Exciting!! Keep it up. A simple suggestion: 1) Make 100 marbles. 2) Number them sequentially (e.g. 001, 002, 003,…). 3) Put them in gun cases or fishing lure boxes in numerical order. 4) Keep them all for reference. 5) Get a notebook. Make a page for each marble. Describe what you wanted as a finished design. Note the glass colors used. Described the finished marble. Write down what you learned or would do differently. Grading is optional. Don't worry about each marble and enjoy the journey. By the time you make 100 marbles, you’ll be amazed how far you have come from your first ten. Please, keep posting your babies. -John

Sweet selection. Superb effort on the photos. 👍🏻