Revealing the Inner Child

[richsantaclaus]

Revealing the Inner Child
by Rich Shelby

I received a phone call one day from a gentleman that had a customer who wanted a German swirl marble repaired. I listened carefully and thought it would be impossible to repair. The gentleman said the marble was, on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being best, a 2. He said it was very damaged with several nicks, dings and chunks taken out of the marble. He said it was worth nothing monetarily but the customer wanted to pass the swirl marble down to younger family members.

I went to explain to the gentleman that, 1) the old glass might explode in the kiln during the warming-up process, 2) if the color bands in the core were too close to the damaged surface, the act of working the repair might distort the interior designs, 3) the two pontils where the color bands came together might be distorted in the torch’s heat and finally 4) the success rate of a swirl marble repair was about 5% to bring it back to the original look that the marble maker made a long time ago.

The gentleman told me he’d let the customer know and get back to me. About a week later, I got the phone call to go ahead and try to repair the swirl marble. He said the customer was told about the main problems but wanted me to try to repair it anyway.

About a week later I received a package from the gentleman with the customer’s swirl marble packed inside. Wow, was it damaged – more then I imagined talking over the phone with the gentleman.

Here are pictures of the marble I received in the mail: