Steve Parent

Steve Parent was first introduced to making art clay marbles while visiting his sister Nancy and her husband Steve “Smitty” Smith who are avid marble enthusiast. Smitty is the current Vice President of the Buckeye Marble Club of Ohio. One night while visiting his sister, she demonstrated her hobby of making handmade clay marbles to him. Inspired by the possibilities and with his interest in art, Steve began to experiment with this newly found art form.

As an artist of the canvas, Steve experienced some difficulties producing consistently designed and perfectly round artwork in this new medium. “They just don’t shine or have same feel of weight as glass marbles do.” Steve began to study books about marbles and the materials that have been used through out history. “The one thing that I noticed is that the earliest marbles that have been found by archeologist were made of clay and stone materials.” Steve came up with the idea of using a combination of different materials and developed a patented 15-step process.

A “Claystonemarble” is a unique art clay / glass hybrid marble made individually by hand. Steve created a new involved processes insuring a consistent design and a perfectly round marble. He completes every marble with a special high gloss finish which insures durability. The marbles are finally packaged in a custom designed box containing a set of five. Each box is signed and dated.

Steve Parent donated five different box sets of his newly designed art clay / glass hybrid marbles to The Marble Museum. They are now part of our permanent collection.

The Museum of American Glass in West Virginia wishes to thank Steve Parent for donating to The National Marble Museum Collection. These unique designs are now part of the marble display.

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