The Rookie...

[DirtyLutz]

Here is my first attempt at photographing my marbles. My goodness, what a tedious and slightly painful experience it has been! Who would have thunk it? I must REALLY love marbles to struggle as much as I did just for the sake of finding the perfect light to bring out the brilliance of these beauties...(or beauty thus so far as editing goes) LOL.

No particular reason why I chose this as my first marble to photograph, it isn't that it's my favorite or that I love the colors, really there was no method to my madness except for that when I was taking pictures of one of my trays of marbles this one kept catching my eye because of its iridescence and sweet little swirl on the top.

Tell me what you think... I have a couple other marbles photographed that I will post after I edit/crop them. 1 down...two hundred and something to go.

Cheers!

Jesse

[Steph]

Hi Jesse.

Photographing transparent marbles can be really hard. Not bad at all.

My first thought was Peltier Rainbo. But then I thought Vitro. Maybe a Vitro Cosmic Rainbo. And that is what I am leaning toward now.

For purposes of art, angles are nice. For purposes of ID, I prefer to see seams straight on. Helps me orient myself on the marble.

[DirtyLutz]

Steph, all I kept thinking about the whole time was, "ok Steph says to take a picture of the seam and then the top and bottom."...but then I couldn't figure out where the seam really was so I just shot it from all angles...I know, I'm a mess.

If I post all of the angles I took of this marble would you be able to tell me where the seam is? Cuz I want to be able to take them just like you described.

Let me know.

Thank you so much.

[Steph]

The seams are kinda hard to see on this transparent base. Do you see where the ribbons join on the side? That's the start of the seam. And I'm not sure but it looks like there might be a line in the glass which you might be able to see or feel in hand. But I really am not sure if I'm seeing the end of the ribbons correctly. Tried to draw close to the seam with the green line.

In this view it's easier to see the ribbons coming together on the edge of the seam.

(And there will be another seam where the ribbons come together on the other end.)

If you don't see what I'm getting at, don't worry. This is a tricky one. Will be easier to pick out seams on other marbles. (:

[Steph]

So, these are the marbles I'm guessing yours could be:

http://marbleconnection.com/topic/15140-vitro-cosmic-rainbow

[DirtyLutz]

Ok I get it now. I think. Thank you so much. So let's say on an akro corkscrew, the tip of the point at the end of the swirl is NOT the seam? That's the top or bottom? Pontil is bottom? Am I on the right track? You're the best Steph.

[Steph]

The ends of the corkscrew ribbon would be at the seams. But the seams might not be as conspicuous on corks. And if you do have a cork then the cork ribbon is usually so distinctive seams aren't necessary to see. And the ribbon is so dominant that it does give the marble a natural "top" and "bottom" which you might be likely to refer to instead of calling it a "seam".

No "pontil" on corks. Corkscrews are machine made marbles. Pontils generally refer to marks on the ends of handmade marbles.

Up to you which end you call top or bottom on a cork.