More Of Rich's Magic!!!

[Steph]

beautiful!

[richsantaclaus]

I can't imagine the neck size of the woman wearing a 1 3/4" German glass bead! Must be a weight lifter!!!

All kidding aside, I have had people ask me to "poke a hole" in a big marble by using a torch. Not wanted to try and I think drilling is the best answer to a person wanting that done.

I simply feel that it is the art of repairing a marble that counts in the long run. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to do art with these old marbles - bringing a piece of trash with cracks, deep dings, etc. and turning them back into representable round pieces of glass art. I especially like working with sulphides removing the big bubbles and centering the figurine. The unfortunate thing that happens occasionally is the old glass doesn't take the reheating process I use and exploded in the kiln! I do want the collector that it might happen but I hate it when it does. In 107 swirl repairs and 209 sulphide repairs, this has happened only 5 times with the swirls and 7 times with the sulphides. The collector is told the risks and left up to them to decide if the repair will go forth or not.

[lopacki]

Rich,

I agree with not wanting to wear such a large bead. I saw an image of a woman wearing a triple strand of German marble beads, I'll see if I can find it and if so I will post is.

I too am after the internal art in the marble, my wife and I have about twenty conserved German marbles in the window sill, what a treat to sit and look at them each evening while we are visiting.

Image of one of the marbles I made a bead from.

All my best .. Danny

[lstmmrbls]

post #25 looked like a good candidate for a polish. Sound like you are saying if someone gets beat up marbles polishes and drills them they could make a big profit? I do not understand why someone would pay top dollar for a marble that was ruined by drilling a hole through it? Bead collecters must even be crazier than us marble collectors

[Ric]

It doesn't sound that way to me at all.

[lstmmrbls]

Sorry, I made it sound like Lopacki was of the mode to do that. Sounds like they keep all their polished beads? I should have said it sounds like anyone could polish up an old handmade drill a hole in it and sell it for good money. Thats why the bead collectors crazier than marble collectors comment.

[lopacki]

post #25 looked like a good candidate for a polish. Sound like you are saying if someone gets beat up marbles polishes and drills them they could make a big profit? I do not understand why someone would pay top dollar for a marble that was ruined by drilling a hole through it? Bead collecters must even be crazier than us marble collectors

Some bead collectors are pretty far out there and you would be amazed at the price some of the old rare beads sell for. When I got the marble that is in post 13 finished just for laughs I posted it on the bead forum and asked if I should drill it (I already knew I would not) there were quite a few that said to drill it. No way I am going to mess up such a wonderful example of the best of the best in German marble glass work.

All my best .... Danny

Image of another marble made into a bead 22mm

[William Marbles]

Hi. Let me ask this. What do you use to drill the hole?

I went out the the shed last night with my most favorite Vacor and Jabo. Had the black n decker running full speed for 3 minutes and barely made a hole in either one, lot's of smoke tho. LOL

Thanks

[lstmmrbls]

Diamond drills

[Steph]

I'm loving the insight into the bead collectors community.

I've often thought about how there are probably things we could learn from bead collectors about the history of the glass-sphere-making industry but I've never followed through on that and visited their sites.

[William Marbles]

Hi!! Marbles have arrived! Very nice in hand, Rich did great work on these considering they were shot/beat. So here the size break down with pictures in the OP.

BEFORE

-2 1/4" mine
-1 7/8" mine
-2 1/8"
-1 5/8"
-1 5/8"
- 11/16" mine

AFTER

-2" mine

+1 5/8" mine

-1 7/8"

-1 1/2"

-1 3/8"

-19/32" mine

So some size difference, but still all original glass.

Thanks again Rich!!!

[richsantaclaus]

This is a picture of the STUFF I had to remove from the marbles and accounts for the smaller sizes. If I didn't remove this debris, the remaining glass wouldn't be clear!!! The STUFF has micro sized dirt particles, metals, and the places where hit marks were, cement shards. It's amazing to see this debris in a 1450 degree F flame wearing specialized glasses that eliminate flare from the flame.

[I'llhavethat1]

Wow, that's more stuff than I would have expected. They were big marbles though