8 Wonders of Kansas commerce

An 8 Wonder of Kansas Commerce

Moon Marble Company, Bonner Springs

Address: 600 E. Front St., Bonner Springs, KS 66012
Phone: 913.441.1432
Website: www.moonmarble.com

Moon Marble Company is one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Commerce because it is the only store in the country where you can buy toy marbles, handmade marbles and watch them being made.

Bring a group to learn to play marbles! The store is full of unique toys games and gifts from the past.

We have made wooden toys and game boards for many years, but always had difficulty finding varieties of marbles for our product. We wanted marbles that we had as children like Bumble-Bees, Cub Scouts, Puries, and so on. In 1997 this "need" led us to the opening of the Moon Marble Company store. The store is located near the intersection of K-32 and K-7 in Bonner Springs.

We stock machine made marbles in a multitude of colors and designs in sizes from pee-wees to 50mm. In addition, we carry traditional toys and games as well as gift items for all ages.

Artisan and owner Bruce Breslow frequently demonstrates his marble making. During demonstrations, Bruce will explain the process of glass working, marble history, and other fascinating areas of marble interest. We also exhibit and sell the work of several dozen prominent glassworkers from across the country.

Visitors to the store will enjoy perusing the displays of antique marble toys or maybe "knuckling down", if they remember how!! Shoppers are sure to find something special for everyone on their list among our selection of special and unusual items.

We have created MoonMarble.com for those of you not fortunate enough to visit us in person. So browse, enjoy, shop if you'd like to, and thanks for visiting.

Source for above: www.moonmarble.com
 
PLAYING FOR KEEPSIES
 
Time was, kids would squat on the ground and attempt to shoot each other's agates outside a circle drawn in dirt or chalked on pavement. Although video-game shootouts seem to have replaced marble games, Bruce Breslow still handcrafts about a thousand marbles a year in a cinder-block warehouse in a suburb 20 miles west of Kansas City.

The Moon Marble Company is Breslow's museum-like novelty shop, brimming with plastic bins of assorted candy-colored, streaked and tie-dyed marbles as well as other retro toys: tea sets, Chinese checkers, tiddlywinks, Radio Flyers, Sno-Cone machines. In the back of the store is a classroom where employees demonstrate how to knuckle down and play for keepsies.

Three days a week, Breslow turns colored glass into little works of art. As kids and adults observe from gymnasium-style bleachers, he melts two or three different colored glass rods over a torch flame, then pushes a pinch of the mixed molten glass into a graphite mold to create a sphere. Manipulating the ball of glass with a metal pick, he creates the radiant color swirls favored by collectors. The marble is reheated, spun and flame-polished. His handmade beauties sell for $20 to $250, but most of the store's million-plus marbles are machine-made and some cost as little as ten cents.

The Moon Marble Company has been in business since 1997 teaching kids and adults how to play marbles and demonstrating marble making. They have had visitors from every state and 35 countries.

VISIT!

The Moon Marble Company offers tours and field trips for groups of many ages. They can also accommodate bus tours.

Store hours: Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Demonstrations are Tuesday, Fridays, and Saturdays throughout the year, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Please call to verify. 913.441.1432.

E-mail:  email@moonmarble.com