Category Archives: Dinosaurs

Our Inventory expands with Eclectic Pendants

There is no rhyme or reason as to why I choose certain stones to cut and wire wrap. The recent selections were chosen simply because I was captivated by them. They were all somewhat unusual, but all spoke to me.

Gorgeous Black and White Dinosaur Bone, that I found deep in a bucket of random rocks.

My wife was in my shop last week, and discovered several slabs of various stones that she liked. I incorporated several of these in my recent creations. Bonnie will often put Gemstones in a dish and put a note in that dish that will say “Bonnie likes these”.

Natural Spiderweb Kingman Turquoise.
When you cut Turquoise and do not smell the odor of any stabilizer, it’s a good thing.

This was the most appealing Turkish Agate I’ve ever cut.

Eyed Prehnite from the Keweenaw.
It’s no wonder that Prehnite, like this, fooled many people into thinking that it was Thomsonite. In fact it is still referred to locally as “UP Thomsonite”.

I was struck by the unusual mustard coloration of this piece of Dinosaur Bone. And ketchup too!

I describe this Lake Superior Agate as a Candy Striped Banded Floater. It’s way more cool in person–it has a lot going on!

Laker Superior Agates are really a surprise sometimes. This one is like a mixed-up soup containing many ingredients.

An absolutely gorgeous Kentucky Agate sporting classic colors for the species. Usually a color dominates; this is especially nice with almost equal areas of yellow, red and black.

This has been a busy spring in my shop. I really haven’t had much time to take pictures, write blogs, or the normal things I do upon returning from suffering the winter in Florida. I suffered a mild heart attack in Florida, but I’m gearing up more every day.

None of these pendants have been put on our websites or in our show inventory. If you are interested any of the pendants in this blog, let us know.

Just Having Fun

Ever See A Golden T-Rex? Tucson Rocks 2017

Sunny and 75

A show hardly anyone came to.

Lobby of Executive Inn

Because of the weekend, the major shows around town are packed with people, and parking is far out and the whole thing is hectic more than fun. We decided to do some small shows.

We went to the Executive Inn that listed around 30 vendors on two floors. The parking was free and there were almost no cars. When we went in there were 2 mineral display cases and a paper sign that said “Shows” to point us in the right direction. A few doors were open with little paper signs alerting us they were there. We found either 5 or 6 vendors on the first floor, and nothing on the second. I kind of felt sorry for these people from foreign countries who obviously had big expenses getting here, and this seemed to be such a small turnout. And the rooms were advertised as newly renovated. New? We wondered.

A Russian vendor had quality pyrite ammonites that I have used for jewelry before, so I selected one. Bonnie admired his Eudialite and Charoite rings and pendants and he had minerals. The best thing at this spot was the free parking, because from there we could walk across the street to the Mineral and Fossil Marketplace that had large tents and looked more promising.

In the past we have found small rock pieces of interest, so we scouted carefully. Like all the mineral and fossil shows, Madagascar fossils were prominent, as were Amethyst crystals. My eye was captured by Labradorite shining in the sun. This was some of the nicest I have seen in Tucson, oriented properly to bring out the maximum shimmer. These pieces were cut into blocks and polished so you could see exactly what you were getting. I bought a fin multicolored specimen and then went back and got a very fine gold Labradorite (some people refer to this as Spectrolite).

A dealer offered nice mineral specimens at good prices.

Never saw a gold T-Rex

sea Monsters

Muonionalusta Meteorite

A permanent building on the grounds sells medium/large prehistoric beasts. They had some great sea monsters, and a gilded T-Rex skull replica. I had never seen a gold T-Rex skull. Just what every house needs!

One of the vendors was a dealer in Muonolusta meteorite material. He searches meteorite fall areas, and he indicated that these are very hard to find now, and hard to dig up. Some are 8-10 feet underground because of glacial activity causing overburden over the meteorites. A backhoe is required as well as special large ray metal detectors to find them in the first place. And property owners don’t like to have big holes dug and disturb their trees.

We had these in Michigan also-Crinoids

Another tent had some fine fossil plates, one 12’x12’covered with a large crinoid colony.

A table full of Australian rocks

Tiger Iron

Wonderful specimens both individually and in trays; all at fair prices.

Most all the major Aussie minerals on one table.

Mookaite

Glenn Archer’s Tent

Glenn Archer had great specimens from remote areas of Australia. He had all the good stuff from there, slabs, chunks and smaller specimens.

We did not have to fight the crowds at this show.

Silver Ore from the Cobalt region of Canada

If you want some fine rough, go here. Random trays abounded.

This labradorite was the best I’ve seen for the money anywhere around Tucson.

I bought this one and another all gold one

Loads of dyed Brazillion slabs. Not really my cup of tea, but many people like these.

Nice Madagascar Stuff

The wall of Chrysocolla.

Because the crowds were at the big shows, we had a very nice time talking with the vendors at this show. We walked back to our free parking and admired the foundation of the old motel sign with many Chrysocolla rocks, the best part of this motel.

Mineral & Fossil Show plus a Bead Show–Tucson Rock Shows 2017

Sunny and 72

Today we ventured to the Hotel Tucson City Center for an overview of the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show. The HTCC was not busy and it was easy to get around. We took a couple of friends who had never been to the shows, and we find this to be a friendly and diverse show.

We noticed new walls around the perimeter of the property. We have heard of thefts in the past of large items, so access to the property is restricted now to a couple of entrance points.

Beautiful Ammonites

Nice desplay as always at The Black Hills Institute Booth

Fossil Bivalves

Major fossil dealers display museum quality fossils in the ballroom. Colorful ammonites shine brightly in the lights. I enjoyed the reconstruction of the saber tooth tiger attacking what appears to be a horse or deer. Other dealers had other fossils including a huge fish skull from Kansas (Xiphactinus audax) that I’d really like to hang on my wall at home.

REALLY-Who would feed a Raptor fruit?? Whomever I hope he wasn’t captured on a security camera.Hmmmm

Beauty and the beast

Marra Mamba in the sun (not an enhanced picture)

The property of the HTCC is hotel rooms surrounding a large center courtyard full of orange trees. A pterodactyl was having a flight among these trees and a raptor was testing his teeth on an orange. Some vendor brought in a huge bronze gorilla that served as a photographic set for visitors. It is always fun to see the dinosaurs scattered around the property. I petted a small dinosaur and nearby some spectacular Marra Mamba were on display.

We saw so many minerals there it is unbelievable. If you want to collect unusual rocks, especially crystals, from anywhere in the world, this is your shopping heaven. Large or small, you can find them all.

Upper Lobby Hotel Tucson City Center

Bonnie & Gail talked with a guy from Russia. He told them he didn’t have much English, so he pulled out his phone and brought up a translator. Gail talked to it and so did he with both the Russian and English showing up on the screen. However, it seemed to have some trouble understanding his Russian, and the answers came out pretty strange. He apparently could read better than he could talk, and would look at it and say, “No, no”, “No, not bad”, “No, not Chinese”, and he’d try again. It was amusing, but they were glad they were not trying to settle the affairs of the

Bead Show Ballroom

Nunn Design

world!

After a pleasant lunch in the courtyard we took a break and then went to a bead show in search of a particular tool I wanted. We went to the Doubletree that hosts To Bead True Blue. Vendors are scattered in various tents, ballrooms and hotel rooms. Parking can be a challenge here, but we were so late in the day we found a spot. I sought out 5 tool dealers and still didn’t find the cutter I wanted. Most of them had never heard of what I wanted and use every day. I wondered why I fought all those red lights across town to get here!

The vendors had beautiful displays and creative jewelry. Most of the vendors seemed pretty burnt out and disinterested by 5:00. I found one exception of some happy ladies at Nunn Design. We admired each others jewelry. They had beautiful steampunk type jewelry components different from anything else at the show.

Bonnie bought some coppery-looking beads and we happily took our tired feet home.

Dinosaur Gembone Jewelry of the Pink Variety

When the dinosaurs died they probably didn’t know that years later their bones would be prized for fine jewelry making!

You can easily see the bone cell structure in fine Gem-grade Dinosaur Bone.

I acquired a slab of delicious pink/black/gray Gembone this year in Tucson. It took some slight prying and good money, but I’ve never seen quite this color in D-Bone, and when held up to the sun, you could see right through it in spots.

Dinosaur Bone is like Petrified Wood, in that the cells and patterns are replaced by varied colors of silica, making each cell a tiny agate. Some colors, like gem reds are more coveted that other unusual colors both in D-Bone and Petrified Wood. This piece has a great combination of white, gray, black with hints of pink making it very unusual.

The original slab (picture taken in natural sunlight). You can see why I wanted this one.

It is really an amazing gemstone. My pink slab was large enough for several cabochons. I am now working on several pendants of D-Bone (Not just this one slab, but many including some red).

Here is the first of my pendants Made from the pink bone. This Pendant was gold and silver and is about 3″ tall. it has a free swinging bottom, of a design engineered by me. This pendant was a real challenge and took several hours, but I think the effort was worth it. It is going to the Agate Expo with us to sell. Other dinosaur bone pendants and coprolite jewelry are for sale on our Dinosaur Jewelry page.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Shows 2014-You can’t Tell A Book By Its’ Cover

A small number of vendors at "The Rock Show".

It has cooled off a bit here in Tucson, but low 60’s is still good for us. We anticipated big crowds today, so we headed off to The Hotel Tucson City Center early, got a great parking space, had coffee, and got busy looking around.

I learned something new..Some Dino's were Chrome; Cool!

No comment...

feedthedino We love the Orange Trees in the courtyard and found the dinosaurs feeding on the fresh fruit.

$17,500

Meteorites for my buddy Chris.

I marveled at beautiful Ammonites as usual. It seemed there were more of these Ammonites than usual. I was told there indeed were more because it is Chinese New Year and the Chinese seem to favor these fossils. I saw several with “Sold” on them.

The main room at the HTCC is where you will many major fossils, including large impressive Ammonites. I saw a 9′ long fossil Swordfish called a Protosphyraena nitida (Late Cretaceous). The room seemed to be busy, but not overwhelming. We had a great time at this show and will return.

I have a couple very special things I found today.

As usual I had to curb Bonnie’s lust for Sonoran Sunrise, but I did allow her to look at some, so I did solve her addiction for another day.

Vendors occupy rooms as with other hotel shows.

No telling what may be in a room.

The vendors occupy rooms at the hotel, many with amazing displays. One of the oddest contained carved Mammoth Tusks. If you are a specimen collector, or meteorite collector, this is the show. I saw Geoff Notkin (The Meteorite Men), selling assorted meteorites, including Muonionalusta slabs from meteorites actually found on the show. There were loads of space rock to be had here.

I saw my buddy Ken Flood at his Keeweenaw Gem & Gift Booth. He was very busy as usual. He had something very special to show me. This is one of the items I have to show you tomorrow. I have been hunting rocks in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula for many years , and have never encountered anything like I purchased from Ken. NOW you’re curious, I’ll bet.

After lunch we drove about 10 miles north of the city center to a new show called The Rock Show. The Rock Show used to be adjacent to Electric Park (now Kino), but the property was sold, and the show went seeking a new location. We were glad someone at Quartzsite told us about this which was good because is isn’t even listed in the big book of shows. We did find it in a small brochure, so decided to head out to see what was there.

Bracciated Mookaite

Bonnie getting her fix. Her comment "Someone put a lot of time into polishing this, so I should admire it."

The Fossil Fish.

A nice selection from someone's cast off pile.

My gently used new saw.

Aspenite and Mexican Crazy Lace.

Check out the Thomsonite I found.

The most amazing Larimar I've seen. I mentioned it yesterday. I think the soft yellow with the Larimar Island is remarkable and unique.

A small group of vendors comprised the show, some who previously sold goods at the old Rock Show, and some new vendors. This is a dirt lot, east of I-10, we exited at #251. It looked like about 10-15 tents, a few RVs, sparsely populated. It didn’t look real promising, but since we drove out there, we decided to look around. This was a Sunday afternoon and only a handful of shoppers were around. Vendors were friendly, and there was good conversation and relaxed personal attention. No imported goods, and hardly any beads. It was like a tiny version of Desert Gardens at Quartzsite. One vendor had a tub filled with random slabs and rocks, many agates and jaspers that I like. Digging through the water in this tub produced some real surprises including gem silica, Condor Agates, shadow agates, picture petrified wood, Queensland Agates, and other “good stuff”. So far this was my favorite few minutes of the day–I love to look through other people’s discards. I ended up with about 5 pounds of treasures.

Another vendor had something I have not seen before, called Aspenite. it is a silicated limonite with chrysocolla from Oro De Conception in north central Mexico. Some of this rock had been sent to the GIA for identification, and they identified the minerals, but said it had no name. Not much has been found, and I splurged on a single small cabochons because the orange and green colors were so striking! And I love the unusual. I also bought the Crazy Lace Agate cabochon that you see in the picture because I liked the colors.

One vendor had an assortment of lapidary equipment on his table, some new and some used. I was attracted to a used 6″ Wizard rock saw. These are sturdy little units from Diamond Pacific. This one had been gently used and was in good condition, and included a saw blade. This was my equipment purchase for this year. Even though I have a few saws (maybe 7 or 8), each one has key attributes. I might have to sell off another old 6″ saw.

I guess the moral of this story is “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.” You never know when treasures might be lurking in out of the way places. I hope this show succeeds, but they will need to do much more publicity in future years.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Shows 2014-Hot buys and Hot Miners

A nice group of Raptors. Triebold Paleontology always Impresses.

Another Triebold Specimen: This one a Thescelosaurus Neglectus (65 million years ago)

We were really excited today to get on with our buying and exploring at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows. There are some 41 official shows and several bandit shows scattered all over Tucson. They open and close at various times. You need a show guide (a large catalog) that lists the locations of shows, dealers, and dates for shows. Some shows require dealer ID, while others are Wholesale/Retail.

Buckets of Turquoise at J.O.G.S.

Turquoise Bead picking.

The J.O.G.S. Show opened at the Tucson Expo Center and we were near the front of the line. We were not really looking for anything in particular, so we Freestyled, looking for things we did not know we needed. Bonnie looked at, and purchased some beads. We look for quality and bargains, but were conservative in our purchases. The crowds were not large, but people were spending some money. I would call the J.O.G.S. show “busy”.

I saw buckets of Turquoise in the usual spot, some nice cabochons and much gem material. Perhaps pictures were frowned upon, but I ask several dealers, and they said I could take a picture. One dealer that we deal with every year again had great stuff. I purchased a Moss Agate cabochon and a wonderful slab of Maw Sit Sit.

Maw Sit Sit from Burma (Now Myanmar)

Maw Sit Sit is a cousin of Jade, but not really Jade. It is considered a rock and not a mineral. You can look it up on line. A very interesting stone indeed. Good stuff is also quite valuable. I looked over on the counter and saw three pieces of Elbite Tourmaline. Are you kidding three pieces of fairly good Tourmaline for a give-away price? This must be a mistake. It was not. The largest piece was 2 1/2″ X 1 1/4″. The buy of the day.

Blakes Guard...Don't mess with the silver dude!

Blake Brothers' Guard...Don't mess with the silver dude!

I saw a very intimidating guard at the Blake Brother’s booth.

A scary skull available for purchase. Bumblebee is not jasper. It is a sulfur rich volcanic Tuft from Indonesia. It can be made into some very colorful Bumblebee jewelry.

We proceeded on to the 22nd Street Show. Last year we were promised an additional tent and a paved lot, but that did not happen. Half the show was fossils and dinosaurs, and the other half random gems, jewelry, cabs, and carvings. If your kids are into dinosaurs, do take them here!

Amanda Adkins has to be the "hottest" Miner around.

The entire cast of the Weather Channel Show “The Prospectors” was there. I asked Amanda Adkins for a picture. She graciously agreed. She is very tough on the show, but very nice in person. It doesn’t hurt the eyes to see her either. I enjoy the show and everyone was taking turns in the booth and selling their wares from Colorado.

A great Dendritic Agate I could not resist.

Tourmaline for four bucks. Nice buy Don.

Tourmaline bargain. Nice buy Don.

Smilodon Skull and Petrified Wood.

Check in tomorrow for more adventures from the Tucson rock shows.

Wire Wrapping 101-NOT! ( My most Challenging Wire Wrapped Pendant)

One of the Gem Bone Slabs I found last year.

One of the Gem Dinosaur Bone Slabs I found last year.

Jewelry I made from the above slab.

Last year I bought some amazing gem dino bone slabs in Quartzsite. These particular slabs came from the estate of a famous bone collector. I love gem grade Dinosaur bone. It amazes me that each individual cell is many times an individual agate, within the agatized D-Bone. These cells can be fortification agates of just nice clear Chalcedony or some of the great colors in good gem Dinosaur bone can be vivid red, orange, yellow, pink, brown.

I cut a few slabs with a multi-stone pendant in mind, and searched out some bone-shaped dinosaur bone beads. I layed out the pieces and saw good possibilities. Bonnie has wanted me to make a pendant for myself to wear at shows, and D-Bone seemed to be a good choice for a manly pendant.

My most challenging pendant thus far.

I thought about this piece of jewelry for at least a year. With multi-stone pendants you have to know the end, and mentally work backwards. Sometimes I need a challenge, or I think I do. No matter what stage you are in your wire wrapping endeavors, you should always look for something to challenge your brain, fingers, and tools. I sometimes get bored just making simpe single-stone wraps and enjoy the challenge of multi-stone wrapping.

Even with all my experience I sometimes try things that just do not work; I have to start over, and try again. This is very frustrating at times. I can almost wire wrap a single stone with my eyes closed, but these multi-stone things are another issue entirely.

Multi stone wrapping is equal parts of engineering, art, and expertise. I find myself inventing techniques to conquer challenges when using multiple stones. A good understanding is also important as to what your wire, your tools, and yourself may be capable of. Sometimes it really upsets me when I think I can do something, and it fails. But I find the best way to learn is from your mistakes (sometimes it takes reminder mistakes).

Ahead 1 year: I laid out my dinosaur bone cabs on my workbench and was certain that I had a plan, but instead I had two complete failures which frustrated me and taught me that perhaps I should rethink this pendant. What I had in mind was extremely complicated and intricate. Can I really pull this off? Finally after being on my workbench for approximately three weeks the pieces began to come together. The big challenge was how to connect piece to piece and still make the work come together artistically.

Also you have to think about what metal to use. In this pendant I decided to use Argentium sterling, yellow gold and pink gold (three tone). I decided that twisted pink always looks nice with silver and I bound it with half-round gold. In this pendant the center rectangular dinosaur bone cabochon is the featured stone: bright red and a perfect pattern. I used another slab of dinosaur bone to fashion the top and bottom pieces with the beads coming from another piece of dinosaur bone. I worked on this off and on for three weeks so that my frustration level would not exceed my judgement. Backing off and thinking things through entirely indeed helped.

I had a larger gap between the second and third pieces than I expected, which gave me the chance to insert the two 5mm faceted garnets between which adds a bit of dignity to the piece. This entire piece is about 4 1/4″ by 1 3/4″.

The finished piece exceeded my expectations, and I will be happily wearing this piece beginning with the upcoming Tucson gem shows. It will open discussions with other wire wrappers that I meet.! I enjoyed the challenge of making this piece of jewelry, but I am elated now that it is done! I name this the Dinosaur Boneyard. So if you are at the Tucson shows and you see a guy wearing this, say hi and introduce yourself!

Speaking of the Tucson Gem shows, my daily blogs will start later this week–hope you join me for my adventures!

Dinosaurs and an Official State Invertebrate Fossil

Miniature Museum

Cincinnati Museum Center.

“Way better than the average museum!” This is how I describe the Cincinnati Museum Center which is located in the old Union Railroad Terminal. After the decline of railroad travel, the building was used for other random uses and in 1978 an attempt was made to convert the terminal into a shopping mall known as the Land of Oz. (Wikipedia) The mall opened in August of 1980 after two years of construction and then the recession hit and the mall took a hit. In 1982 the Cincinnati Museum of Health, Science and Industry opened in the terminal. The Oz project closed in 1984. The terminal was virtually empty for the next decade. In May of 1986 a bond levy was passed to save the terminal and transform it into the Museum Center. Former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer was one of the major proponents of saving the building and converting it to a museum. Amtrak still runs out of the terminal three times weekly. The conversion cost in excess of $40 million, funds provided by federal and state governments, local millage and donations.

Six organizations now have their homes here: The Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, Robert D Lindner Family Omnimax Theater (a five story domed movie house), the Cincinnati Historical Society Library, Duke Energy Children’s Museum, and the Cincinnati Railroad Club. We were most interest in the science part which was featuring dinosaurs, while the Omnimax Theater showed a movie, Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants of Gondwana (Patagonia). t-rex1

The dinosaur exhibit featured fossils, skeletons, and 20 full scale casts of assorted dinosaurs. The Omnimax movie was projected on a five story dome which allowed for a full surround picture and digital sound. Watching this movie that appeared to be three dimensional, but you didn’t need 3-D glasses is so realistic that it freaks some people out. Dinosaurs are layered over natural habitat for a completely realistic experience. The movie featured the discovery of the first super-big giganotosaurus which is possible the largest land predator that every lived. It measured 45 feet in length and weighed six tons, slightly surpassing the T-Rex in size. We followed Fr Rodolofo Coria a renowned Argentinian paleontologist who has discovered several new dinosaurs in Patagonia. This was one of the most amazing movies we’ve ever seen, with supersized dinosaurs walking right over your head.

Dinosaur Bone.

A closeup or some Dinosaur Bone reveals they are made up of a multitude of individual agates.

The museum featured a series of diaramas starting at the beginning of geologic time. Wonderful displays of rocks, minerals and fossils–I wished I owned the beautiful red and black Kentucky agate that I saw. I specialize in great agate jewelry.

Also featured was the official invertebrate fossil of Ohio, the trilobite (isotelus). This was a 12-13″ specimen, not your friendly little pendant sized ones I make into jewelry! Now as far as I know, Ohio is the only state with an Official Invertebrate Fossil(Ordovician), which leaves open the opportunity to name any number of other types of fossils as official. Naming other Official Fossils would be a good activity when state legislatures have nothing else important to do in the future. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of this official fossil, but picture one the size of your biggest dinner plate! Pennsylvania also sports the phacops rana (Devonian) that is also a trilobite as their official state fossil. Does this make it more or less important than an official invertebrate fossil? This will give you something to ponder today: which is more important Official State Fossil or Official State Invertebrate Fossil?! I just hope Ohio is not still upset over trading Michigan a small strip of land for the entire Upper Peninsula.

Mastodon teeth look fairly ugly from the outside, but reveal magnificent patterns on the inside. The issue with them is most often they are too soft for lapidary work.

Mastodon teeth look fairly ugly from the outside, but can reveal magnificent patterns on the inside. The issue with them is most often they are too soft for lapidary work.

There were a number of mastadon fossils on display from Ohio, including several sets of teeth, which of course reminded me of the jewelry I made from them! Seriously, they were black and kind of boring looking color-wise. Notice that the pendant I made from a mastadon tooth had interesting mineral replacement giving it earthy blues and browns.

The main museum entrance. You enter a fantastic domed huge open space that sued to be the main train terminal.

The main museum entrance. You enter a fantastic domed huge open space that used to be the main train terminal.

Murals, that at first seem painted, turned out to be made up of small colored tiles.

Across the huge lobby from the entrance to the Science museum is the History Museum. As we entered the museum we were met with a friendly volunteer that pointed out their scale model of Cincinnati as it may have looked beginning in the 1930’s. The detail and accuracy of this model is jaw-dropping especially as Cincinnati goes from daylight to darkness, and the lights come on. Miniature people, streetcars, trains, automobiles and animated action are all part of the scene. The history of Cincinnati is throughly detailed, including a neat 2/3 scale steamboat and small historic town on the lower level.

The old entrance to the trains is now the entrance to the 5 story OMNIMAX theater.

If you are ever in Cincinnati, do take a day to visit the Museum Center.