Frequently Asked Questions

The Top 10 Questions of the day....

10. Where's a good place to eat?

9. Do you have a bathroom?

8. What does this do? Looking at the screw pump on the counter

7. Do you have one of these open?

6. Do you have any dinosaurs?

5. Do you have any marbles?

4. What's your best selling toy?

3. Which of these is better? The 70 piece magic kit or Klutz book of Gotcha Gadgets?

2. Do you have any chocolate? Sorry, the candy store is next door....

1. The best question of the day today was asked by a 3 (ish) year old girl..... 

    "Is this a Dinosaur and a truck?"

Boredom Busters

 Start the day with a leisurely walk along the Animas river!

Listen to the water, 

feel the sun, 

know the river will never 

be the same as when you

 saw it....

 These are schwanky marbles!

 Here's how to play one of the oldest marble games, described by the Roman poet Ovid, and played by Augustus, who founded the Roman Empire. The first player shoots one marble onto the playing field, which can be any area. The second player tries to hit the first player's marble. 

If they hit it, they collect both marbles.

 True classics never die!

 Do you know how to play Jacks?

 Or is this Jack a good friend?

Did Ya Know?

 Longest marble run 
in Great Britian

House of Marbles in Devon England home of Great Britians biggest marble run. This is cool!

Cuneo Furnace was founded in 1971 as Maslach Art Glass. It is one of the oldest and most innovative glassmaking studios in the United States. These handmade beauties are pretty rare these days as the factory has closed but the House of Marbles has a collection.


How do they make "handmade marbles?"
Their highly decorative marbles are all handmade. Firstly they create a patterned glass rod - this is the incredibly hard part. They utilise 16th century Italian glass techniques, latticinio, filigrana and zanfirico. Each colour and strand is a separate piece of glass cane or ribbon. The design is constructed of molten glass with layers of cane and collared glass. The pattern is cased in crystal, shaped and is drawn out to reduce it in size. The pattern rods are cut into small pieces, heated, twisted and shaped to the complete design. The process takes several days and combines heavy, hot furnace work, tricky and difficult shaping, as well as the final smoothing and polishing.

Boredom Busters

 You've seen this one before! 
Fill up a vessel of any sort, a glass, a jar, an empty milk jug with marbles, popcorn, buttons, or even rocks! Then try to guess how many are in there! This will be a great counting and sorting adventure! Whoever guesses the closest can win a prize, whoever guesses the furthest can win a silly prize too!

 Snow Bonsai

The Imagination Tree...Shape the tree and let the magic begin!
Watch the crystals grow and place your tree in a place where it can be admired and viewed. Watch it grow, meditate, and see the crystals in your minds' eye!

Find the Difference Puzzles!
A jigsaw puzzle of a different sort!

Pick your level of difficulty.... either a 60 pice puzzle or the family size 400 piece puzzle. As you complete the puzzle, the picture on the box and the picture on the puzzle are almost identical! Can you spot the differences?

Did ya Know?

 The Gyroscope is a self spinning- balancing toy that was put to good use in many different applications.
In 1743, John Serson invented the "Whirling speculum" to help locate the horizon in foggy or misty conditions at sea.

Gyroscopes have not only been used for navigation but also become an important part of gun sights in WW II.
The coolest fact I have, is that now itty bitty teeny tiny gyroscopes are now used in IPhones, IPads, and IPods for motion sensing. So, the next time you flip your IPhone, just picture this wonder of science inside your device!

Don't loose your marbles!

Marbles made of clay and agate have been around for thousands of years. 

Marbles have even been found in tombs in ancient Egypt!

The marbles we know , mainly made of glass, started in Germany with a glassblower who made a device called "marble scissors" in 1846. These "scissors" helped to create a round ball of hot glass and separate it from its source. It wasn't until the 1890's that the first glass marbles were mass produced in the USA.