Screen-printing marbles

I've seen marbles screen-printed with pictures of the Earth from space
at a couple of places, and been very impressed. But there are eight other
planets out there, plus half a dozen major moons, that would look very
good on marbles.

Is this the sort of place where I could ask how much it might cost to
get marbles screen-printed with images I provide, and what sort of minimum
batch size is sensible? I imagine there's a market for a few hundred in
each design per year at science-fiction conventions, and conceivably up
to two orders of magnitude more as attractive objects to sell at museums
if the price is right and museum buyers can be convinced.

But I have no idea who would produce this kind of thing, and I have no
idea if the sane batch size is 100 or 10,000, or if the per-batch
set-up cost is $300 or $30,000; the only figure I have is that the
Earth marbles I purchased, which were perhaps 2cm in diameter, cost
around ten dollars. But I suspect they were produced by NASA, who are
more prepared to buy in bulk than I am.

I'd be interested in marbles of 2cm, 2.5cm and 3cm diameters; yes, 3cm
is huge, but so is Jupiter.

Tom

Well, showing my ignorance, I haven't seen screen printed marbles and
before you said you had them, I doubted the existed. Screen printing on
cylinders is done by wrapping the screen. Laying the pattern on a sphere,
especially a small sphere, gets to be a really interesting concept. Perhaps
some kind of spraying technique. I question how many of the planets would
be interesting because Mercury, Venus, and Uranus are, as I recall,
featureless white balls and Saturn without its rings is not so hot. I'll
conceed you Jupiter and the moon and maybe Mars, but Pluto?
A Google search with silk screened spheres got better results than
marbles silk screened so look at this site
http://www.aworldofmaps.com/floorglb.htm

--
Mike Firth
Hot Glass Bits Furnace Working Website
http://users.ticnet.com/mikefirth/I-UPSUMM.HTM
shows recently changed files, click on link
"Thomas Womack" wrote in message
...
I've seen marbles screen-printed with pictures of the Earth from space
at a couple of places, and been very impressed. But there are eight other
planets out there, plus half a dozen major moons, that would look very
good on marbles.

Is this the sort of place where I could ask how much it might cost to
get marbles screen-printed with images I provide, and what sort of minimum
batch size is sensible? I imagine there's a market for a few hundred in
each design per year at science-fiction conventions, and conceivably up
to two orders of magnitude more as attractive objects to sell at museums
if the price is right and museum buyers can be convinced.

But I have no idea who would produce this kind of thing, and I have no
idea if the sane batch size is 100 or 10,000, or if the per-batch
set-up cost is $300 or $30,000; the only figure I have is that the
Earth marbles I purchased, which were perhaps 2cm in diameter, cost
around ten dollars. But I suspect they were produced by NASA, who are
more prepared to buy in bulk than I am.

I'd be interested in marbles of 2cm, 2.5cm and 3cm diameters; yes, 3cm
is huge, but so is Jupiter.

Tom

In article ,
Mike Firth wrote:
Well, showing my ignorance, I haven't seen screen printed marbles and
before you said you had them, I doubted the existed. Screen printing on
cylinders is done by wrapping the screen. Laying the pattern on a sphere,
especially a small sphere, gets to be a really interesting concept.

I'm not quite sure how they do it, no ... the Earths I have are blue
glass spheres and the continents appear slightly above the surface of
the sphere, whilst the oceans are level, so I suspect they take
advantage of Earth's surface being made of continents to avoid
figuring out how to make the seam seamless.

I question how many of the planets would
be interesting because Mercury, Venus, and Uranus are, as I recall,
featureless white balls and Saturn without its rings is not so hot.

I got that far lying in bed last night; Mars and Jupiter work, Neptune
is a pretty shade of blue with little black and white markings and
might work, then there's our moon, Jupiter's four big moons (the
pizza- coloured one, the cracked one, the smudgy one and the
amazingly-cratered one), and Triton out around Neptune. There are some
awkward scale issues for Triton and Callisto, objects whose main
feature is attractively textured surface, of course.

Tom

try asking www.marbleman.com (i may have that wrong by a word??) a search
for marble + man may turn more up???. He had some printed with the year.
michele


"Thomas Womack" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Mike Firth wrote:
Well, showing my ignorance, I haven't seen screen printed marbles and
before you said you had them, I doubted the existed. Screen printing on
cylinders is done by wrapping the screen. Laying the pattern on a
sphere,
especially a small sphere, gets to be a really interesting concept.

I'm not quite sure how they do it, no ... the Earths I have are blue
glass spheres and the continents appear slightly above the surface of
the sphere, whilst the oceans are level, so I suspect they take
advantage of Earth's surface being made of continents to avoid
figuring out how to make the seam seamless.

I question how many of the planets would
be interesting because Mercury, Venus, and Uranus are, as I recall,
featureless white balls and Saturn without its rings is not so hot.

I got that far lying in bed last night; Mars and Jupiter work, Neptune
is a pretty shade of blue with little black and white markings and
might work, then there's our moon, Jupiter's four big moons (the
pizza- coloured one, the cracked one, the smudgy one and the
amazingly-cratered one), and Triton out around Neptune. There are some
awkward scale issues for Triton and Callisto, objects whose main
feature is attractively textured surface, of course.

Tom

It's been a while since I've seen it done, but golf balls are imprinted with
a machine called a "pad printer". I dunno if one could print something as
small as a marble, but they print on millions of golf balls every day.




"Mike Firth" wrote in message
...
Well, showing my ignorance, I haven't seen screen printed marbles and
before you said you had them, I doubted the existed. Screen printing on
cylinders is done by wrapping the screen. Laying the pattern on a
sphere,
especially a small sphere, gets to be a really interesting concept.
Perhaps
some kind of spraying technique. I question how many of the planets would
be interesting because Mercury, Venus, and Uranus are, as I recall,
featureless white balls and Saturn without its rings is not so hot. I'll
conceed you Jupiter and the moon and maybe Mars, but Pluto?
A Google search with silk screened spheres got better results than
marbles silk screened so look at this site
http://www.aworldofmaps.com/floorglb.htm

--
Mike Firth
Hot Glass Bits Furnace Working Website
http://users.ticnet.com/mikefirth/I-UPSUMM.HTM
shows recently changed files, click on link
"Thomas Womack" wrote in message
...
I've seen marbles screen-printed with pictures of the Earth from space
at a couple of places, and been very impressed. But there are eight
other
planets out there, plus half a dozen major moons, that would look very
good on marbles.

Is this the sort of place where I could ask how much it might cost to
get marbles screen-printed with images I provide, and what sort of
minimum
batch size is sensible? I imagine there's a market for a few hundred in
each design per year at science-fiction conventions, and conceivably up
to two orders of magnitude more as attractive objects to sell at museums
if the price is right and museum buyers can be convinced.

But I have no idea who would produce this kind of thing, and I have no
idea if the sane batch size is 100 or 10,000, or if the per-batch
set-up cost is $300 or $30,000; the only figure I have is that the
Earth marbles I purchased, which were perhaps 2cm in diameter, cost
around ten dollars. But I suspect they were produced by NASA, who are
more prepared to buy in bulk than I am.

I'd be interested in marbles of 2cm, 2.5cm and 3cm diameters; yes, 3cm
is huge, but so is Jupiter.

Tom

actually, i just checked and it's www.themarbleman.com and he has a whole
selection of printed marbles. He may be able to assist you??. m

On Sun, 3 Aug 2003 12:08:56 -0500, "Mike Firth"
wrote:

Well, showing my ignorance, I haven't seen screen printed marbles and
before you said you had them, I doubted the existed.

I suspect taht they are actually Pad printed. A soft silicone rubber
(or similar material), is pressed against an etching of the design,
and then against the surface. Something similar, but using a roller,
rather than pad, would do it.

Screen printing on
cylinders is done by wrapping the screen. Laying the pattern on a sphere,
especially a small sphere, gets to be a really interesting concept. Perhaps
some kind of spraying technique. I question how many of the planets would
be interesting because Mercury, Venus, and Uranus are, as I recall,
featureless white balls and Saturn without its rings is not so hot. I'll
conceed you Jupiter and the moon and maybe Mars, but Pluto?
A Google search with silk screened spheres got better results than
marbles silk screened so look at this site
http://www.aworldofmaps.com/floorglb.htm

Walter Daniels (Sig currently not installed)

Check this out... Minimum run of 100.
http://www.digitaloutput.net/back%20.../feature1.html

--

Tink

www.blackswampglassworks.com
Sign Up Now For Fall Workshops!
Hollows, Vessels & Florals...

"Moonraker" wrote in message
...
It's been a while since I've seen it done, but golf balls are imprinted
with
a machine called a "pad printer". I dunno if one could print something
as
small as a marble, but they print on millions of golf balls every day.