The Great Humboldt Marble Hunt

By Joy Sandhill

It all started in 2007 for Topher Reynolds when he took a glassblowing class at Mirador Glass in McKinleyville, CA. Mirador ( which has since relocated to the Hudson Valley area in New York) made and sold everything from glass earrings and pendants to mugs and custom chandeliers. Topher had always been fascinated by the art form and took a beginner’s class where he felt an instant connection and draw to the process. “After that, it really was all I could think about for weeks,” said Topher. “I actually dreamt about the subtle combination of heat, gravity, and centrifugal force used to manipulate the glass.” Topher credits the owners and teachers at Mirador Glass, Bryan Raskin and Wesley Hodges, with changing his life.

After renting studio space for a while, Topher built a home studio, and then a few years later opened his current location called Glass Garage in the Mendenhall Studios complex at 215 C Street in Eureka’s Old Town. “It’s great to have a larger studio I can share with a few friends. We are primarily a production shop and don’t have a store or gallery, but it’s nice to be able to open up for Arts Alive and other Old Town events.”

The glassblowing community in Humboldt County is a subculture unto itself. Its origins date back to the 1970s when Ro Purser lived here and began making glass fishing floats. Ro eventually got into marble making and is considered the founder of the modern marble movement. Humboldt County also has the distinction of developing some of the world’s most-renowned functional glass artists.

Marble hunting in Humboldt County has also become quite a subculture. For Topher it began in 2016 when he asked his wife for a peculiar birthday gift: he wanted to purchase postage to send one-of-a kind glass art marbles to people in a new Facebook group called World’s Biggest Marble Hunt. The plan was to have one of his marbles hidden in every state in the nation on the opening day of the hunt. Topher’s wife, always supportive of his glassblowing ventures, thought it sounded like a fun event and a good way to promote his work.

The World’s Biggest Marble Hunt was the brainchild of Missouri-based glass artist Will Stuckenberg. He wanted to create an ongoing event which would serve the dual purpose of getting people to interact with their surroundings while also drawing attention to the incredible art created by contemporary marble makers. People buy or are gifted marbles to hide somewhere out in the world (adhering to rules about private property, not disturbing vegetation, etc.) then post clues about the location on the Facebook page. Other people go out to search for the artfully crafted orbs and reply to the post when they find one. Paying it forward, the enjoyment of the hunt, and visiting new places are core ideas to marble-hunting. Anyone can join the Facebook group and participate.

Since that opening day, Topher has hidden more than 500 marbles throughout Humboldt County, the United States, and numerous foreign countries. “Before all of this, I didn’t have any over-arching life plan,” explains Topher, “but now I want my lasting legacy to be having inspired hundreds of small, happy moments amongst strangers who find and then pass on my marbles.”

Topher stands by the claim that Humboldt has the most active marble-hunting community in the nation: “I think it’s the combination of our citizens wanting to support the arts, our pay-it-forward attitude, and the immense diversity and accessibility of our natural beauty that attracts so many people to marble hunting.” Humboldt’s marble-hunting community is so active, in fact, it caught the attention of National Geographic, which published an article in the February 2021 online edition, focusing on the allure of making, hiding, and finding marbles within the county.

Topher is also the organizer of Humboldt Marble Weekend. The event grew from the idea of wanting to present the world’s top marble makers to Humboldt County while also showing off Humboldt County to the artists and traveling marble collectors. “I feel like a lucky man every day to be able to live and work as a marble artist in Humboldt County,” Topher added with a big smile.

Started in 2017, the show has grown to be the largest contemporary marble event in the world. The last show in 2019 featured over seventy artists from twenty-six states and more than 5,000 participants. Unfortunately, the pandemic and family responsibilities have postponed the show for a few years, but plans are in place to bring it back in February 2024.