Mark Matthews - the ultimate and legendary furnace marble MASTER, one of the greatest glass innovators of our time! He is The Legend, and was one of the first fully dedicated marble/sphere artists in the world. He has done things with spheres that nobody else dreamed of before he did, and which nobody has been able to duplicate either, especially his Geometric and Animal Skin spheres which are based on a technique called graal. Mark actually went to the Smithsonian and was allowed to pull out pelts from their collection which he then used as the models for his mind boggling Animal Skin spheres. His attention to perfection in detail is seen throughout his work, and especially in the lines of his filigrana spheres, culminating in the amazing Clown Filigranas, which each contain 14 unique canes. Mark took his art to yet another level when he created various 'Population Portraits', which featured large hand blown jars, created by him, which were then filled with a historical mix of his marbles from specific time periods. His latest and greatest was Population Portrait IX, each of which contain 144 different marbles. There are 7 of these PP IX's that Mark created, one of them being an artist proof (the AP's are always kept in his archives, with only a few exceptions of released pieces).

In summary, if you want a complete marble collection with some of the most legendary and historical marbles the world has ever seen, then you need to get serious about having Mark Matthews in that collection. He has been heavily featured in the Corning Museum of Glass, teaching, displaying and selling there, and his work will always be recognized as some of the most groundbreaking the world has experienced when it comes to spheres and marbles. If you want to dig deeper into Mark's work and learn more about his history, you can obtain the wonderful coffee table book called 'The Music of the Spheres: Art Works of Mark Matthews' by Robert Crafton. It's an excellent read that is chock full of great pictures of Mark's work and legacy, and it's available here at Glass ORBits in the Books gallery.

Please click on a gallery to see more images of each marble and to purchase available marbles. I ship worldwide.