Marbles (or Mibs) are even older and even more universal than checkers. The first marbles were polished round river stones, followed by fired clay and eventually glass. Until 1884, most American marbles were made of hand-rolled clay fired on the floor of salt kilns. Because of the laborious hand-rolling process, these marbles were relatively expensive and beyond reach of all but the most well-off families. In 1884 Sam Dyke of Akron, Ohio developed a means of mechanically rolling clay marbles and marble futures plummeted. Following in 1915, mass production of glass marbles was perfected and the rest is history.
Speaking of history, our marbles are made the old-fashioned way by combing different colored clays and rolling by hand, then setting them aside to dry very slowly. Several weeks later, we’ll sprinkle them over the floor of our Groundhog Kiln between all the pots. The resulting variety is pretty mind blowing.