What's in a Name?

During our shopping trip to the Denver 'rock' shows, I became keenly aware of an amazing variety of pronunciations for the fossils and minerals on display.  I held my tongue and avoided saying something rude like "it is pronounced...".  But, on a couple of occasions, I may have stepped on toes by steadfastly holding to my own preferred pronunciation (rather than saying it their way).  Hopefully I didn't offend anyone.  But if I did, it was not intended.

I did observe just a couple people in active discussion over pronunciation.  But seriously, who REALLY KNOWS the correct way to pronounce Latin names?  I vividly remember being taught that Latin was chosen for medical and scientific names because it is a "dead language".  So, if it is a dead language, how can anyone be confident of the correct way to say those words?

And, of course, at an international type of show, there are cultural and language differences that one should respect...if for no other reason than to just be polite.

Anyway, what follows are some pronunciations observed among people for whom English was their primary language:

Trilobite:  TRY-lobe-ite, TRILL-o-bite
Sugilite: SU-jee-lite, SU-gill-ite, SHOO-gill-ite
Barite: BAY-rite, BEAR-ite
Fluorite: FLOOR-ite, FLOO-rite

Entertaining as this might be, we welcome all pronunciations at Crystal Moon Gallery.  And, please be patient with us if our pronunciation doesn't match yours.  ;-)

Painting Demonstration by Monte Wilson

On Saturday, 21 August, Monte Wilson gave a demonstration of the skills he has developed as an artist.  Somehow, I never quite finished this blog entry.  Please forgive the long-delayed posting.

Despite a recent broken-ankle, and borderline hostile work environment, Monte delivered on his scheduled painting demonstration.  Ridgmar Mall even allowed us to set him up in the common area near our front door.  This was both a blessing and a curse.  On the one hand, it allowed a number of people to watch Monte, who might not have otherwise entered the store.  On the other hand, there was also a children's event in the area known as "Macy's Court"...and the noise level drove quite a number of adults to seek sanctuary.  ;-)

After an extended break, Monte was able to complete the painting above.  All-in-all, a pretty impressive performance.  And, the high-bidder in a silent auction went home with a framed, original, oil-painting by Monte.

Monte has introduced a line of small originals, typically about 6" by 8".  And, in addition to his gallery and web presence, he is offering some of them via his ebay store.

Once again, I apologize for the delay in this posting.
David

Meteorites

Those of you that have met us know that we have a real enthusiasm for most everything in the store.  Most of the minerals, fossils, and even "Objets D'Art" are items that we have investigated for quite some time.  Meteorites are among our newest "enthusiasms". 

The technological advances of the last couple decades have greatly expanded the availability of nearly all collectibles.  That is to say that the internet has broadened the knowledge of collectors, and notified others of the "collect-ability" of items they own or can obtain.  This prompts more hunters and pickers, and stimulates new businesses.  This is especially true of meteorites.  

Stony meteorites are estimated by scientists to be the most common form of meteorite to actually reach the Earth.  More than 85% of meteorites are thought to be of the stony variety.  BUT, they are really difficult to find and identify, because for-the-most-part, they look like rocks.  Even chipped stony meteorites, examined under magnification, look like a rock to the untrained person.  For this reason, we do not offer stony meteorites at Crystal Moon Gallery.  An article at Geology.com gives some more detailed information regarding the types of meteorites.

Iron meteorites are generally thought to account for less than 6% of meteorite falls.  The meteorites that we offer are all of the Iron (aka Iron/Nickel) variety.  And, as of this writing are all from Campo Del Cielo in Argentina.  These are arguably the most affordable of all iron meteorites.  As you will see in the linked widipedia article, many tons of "Campos" have been recovered and are now on the market. This article at Geology.com gives more information on authenticating an iron meteorite.

Physical (external) features that one may find on iron meteorites include magnetic attraction, Regmaglypts, flow lines and high density (heavy for its size).  The American Museum of Natural History has a good, brief, article about these features.

Virtually all meteorites will attract a magnet.  This is due to them containing elemental iron.  Iron compounds frequently found on the surface of the Earth will not attract a magnet.  Hematite (the primary ore of iron), Iron Carbonates, Iron Sulfides (e.g. Pyrite), and most other common iron-bearing Earth rocks do not attract a magnet.  Obviously, Magnetite (lodestone) is an exception, but Magnetite rarely looks like a meteorite.

Regmaglypts are concavities in the surface of a meteorite that look very much like a child's thumb-prints in a piece of clay.  Regmaglypts are the feature most people look-for in a meteorite.  They are the result of molten metal being "blown away" during travel through the air.

Flow lines resemble candle-wax that has melted and dripped down a candle.  They are the result of the outer surface of a meteorite melting and flowing from the trip through our atmosphere.  Curiously, meteorites begin to cool as they travel in the lower part of our atmosphere.  That, combined with being essentially frozen on the inside (from eons in the cold of space), allows the flow lines to harden before contact with the ground.

Density is a tough subject to write-about.  But, once you handle a meteorite (or an iron cannonball, or a piece of steel plate, etc), you will understand the concept of a rock seeming too-heavy-for-its-size.  Our, when you visit our store, ask to handle our etched Campo.  Each half is only about 3-and-a-half pounds, but the density surprises most everybody.

A lot of people have never seen a meteorite.  Most have never touched one.  Campo Del Cielo meteorites allow one to have and hold a genuine meteorite from a distant asteroid or planet, at an affordable price.

Green Antiques, Art and Utilitarian Items

No, we're not talking about old things being allowed to molder in a  barn.  Rather, we're talking about the idea of taking an environmental approach to purchasing art and even functional items.  Goinggreenhints.com found this definition of 'going green':  "A phrase referring to individual action that a person can consciously take to to curb harmful effects on the environment through consumer habits, behavior and lifestyle". 

Fundamental to our concept here at Crystal Moon Gallery, was the idea that people can get greater enjoyment out of a smaller number of very high-quality items, vs. a large number of cheap items.  Further, that there are a large number of very skilled artists and artisans in North Texas producing very fine, original, work that surpasses factory-made items in both quality, workmanship, and yes even environmental stewardship.

Paintings vs. Prints:  High-quality prints are available with a design-life of many decades.  However, most commonly available prints are applied to wood-pulp-based papers, with a life expectancy of just years.  After all, the objective of mass-produced prints is to keep costs low.  Oil-paint on canvas can be expected to last centuries.  And, archival grade papers used by most water-colorists can also be expected to last for well over one-hundred years.  Further, original art is usually viewed as an heirloom which is passed between generations...saving many trees over periodic replacement of prints.

Trees lost to storms typically find their way to a landfill, or are shredded into mulch.  This is because most wood mills have no cost-efficient procedure for using downed-trees.  However, local artists are able to salvage wood from these lost trees, producing bowls, pens, and many other useful items.  Thus, each tree salvaged by an artist saves waste, as well as a living tree that might be cut for lumber.

Green (the spending kind): By far the greatest bang-for-your-buck will come from buying from local artists.  The reason for this is two-fold:

• Most artists cannot afford waste.  They will salvage, reuse, recycle or otherwise utilize every gram of silver, block of wood, drop of paint/glaze or fragment of a gemstone.
• Most artists are only trying to feed one person off their talents.  And, although economies of scale are a very real phenomenon, and definitely benefit the factory, each level of the distribution chain requires a markup in price.  The result being that retail jewelry stores (for example) charge prices (for mass-produced items) 5 times (or more) the price collected by the original factory.

Antique Furniture represents trees that were cut generations ago.  Arguably, the ultimate form of reuse, decades-old furniture has proven its sturdiness, and ability to survive use.  By contrast, most modern furniture is a wood-fiber product that is heavy, short-lived, and produces other waste products.

Please join us in supporting local artists...and the environment.

Of Drawers and Dovetails

Like the wheel, the dovetail joint owes its existence to some very ancient genius whose name has been lost to history.  The dovetail is a remarkably effective form of joinery used on ancient Egyptian coffins, chests and boxes.  Since that time, it has been used on log-cabins, musical instruments, machinery, furniture of many kinds, and especially on drawers.

The major draw-back to the dovetail has always been the complexity of the joint.  That is, it is relatively time-consuming to create...especially before the invention of dove-tailing machinery.  It has always been much faster/easier to drive a nail or other fastener (and doesn't require a tremendous amount of technical skill).  Therefore the dovetail was very much a mark of high-end workmanship for the greatest part of its history.  Even now, with availability of fully-automated machines, lower-end manufacturers frequently chose alternate joining techniques.

The earliest dovetails were of the "through" variety.  That is, the boards to be joined were cut-through with a saw, leaving the joint fully visible on both sides.  Very soon, people began experimenting with ways to cover the joint.  The ancient Egyptians used veneer to great effect, both to cover joints, and to make common woods look more attractive.  More commonly, a "false front" is used to cover the joint...especially when used on drawers.  Today, one is most likely to find through-dovetails on carpenter-made boxes and chests from the 19th century.

The photo at the top of this text if of the half-blind variety.  That is, half the joint is visible (one side only), while the other half of the joint is hidden (i.e. the front).   The half-blind variety of dovetail requires that pockets to accept the tails be chiseled out of the wood.  They are substantially more labor-intensive than a through-dovetail, and much more attractive.

A variety of half-blind dovetail popular in the 19th century (especially in England), frequently called the "arrowhead dovetail", is shown above.  This style uses very acute angles, and may have as few as one pin.  As shown in the photo, the fit and finish tend to be very fine on quality furniture.  That is, better furniture, appropriately preserved, won't show gaps and looseness in the joint. 

Because hand-cut dovetails (especially half-blind) were so labor-intensive, there was much experimenting with machinery to cut dovetails.  The photo above shows a machine-cut dovetail, frequently called an "English" dovetail.  There are a large number of pins and tails, of equal size and angles.  Alternate names are "pin and cove" or "post and cove".  This style of joinery is a very useful tool for recognizing furniture made after 1900.  However, the exact date of this innovation is uncertain.

The "sliding" dovetail is also very old.  Proponents like this dovetail style because glue is not essential, and the joint can flex with wood as it naturally expands and contracts.  The sliding dovetail also works well with  the various wood-particle and wood-fiber products.  This has not enhanced the sliding dovetail's reputation as a mark of quality, but has made it more common in homes.

Megalodon Teeth

The giant shark known collectively as Megalodon seems to capture the imagination more than almost any other sea-creature.  The enormous teeth they left behind trigger something in the human imagination.  This leads to any number of assumptions, misunderstandings, preconceptions, and just plain misinformation.  Since we offer these fossils in our store, I thought it appropriate to try to BRIEFLY provide some information, and point the reader to other sources of more detailed information.

1. The Megalodon were VERY LARGE sharks.  This may be intuitively obvious to many.  But, in our store, we routinely hear people assuming that teeth this large must come from dinosaurs.  Much disagreement exists over just how big.  But, it seems safe to conclude they were at least twice as long as the Great White Shark. 
2. Sharks produce many hundreds of teeth in their lifetime.  Therefore, shark teeth are a relatively common fossil.  HOWEVER, other shark fossils, such as bones, are quite rare (due to the cartilaginous skeleton).
3. The lack of articulated fossils (bones preserved in anatomically correct position) requires a very different approach to Paleontology...resulting in multiple opinions on Meg lineage.
4. Much physical evidence DOES exist indicating that Megs fed upon early whales.
5. Physical evidence does NOT exist indicating that Megs are still swimming somewhere.
6. Meg teeth are commonly measured on-the-diagonal.  That is from point to each corner of the root.
7. Size is a major determinate of price.  Each full inch of slant-length marks a significant price-point.  Under 2-inches is considered a pretty common size, with prices increasing significantly at 3, 4 and 5 inches.  Almost any tooth over 6 inches will draw a pretty impressive number of dollars.
8. Condition is the second driver of price.  The best teeth will have a complete tip, little/no chipping, sharp serrations, and complete bourrelet.  A small tooth in extraordinary condition may sell for much more than a larger tooth in average condition.
9. The bulk of Meg teeth are recovered by divers working in pretty scary environments...low visibility, sharks, alligators, etc.

For beginning or intermediate fossil-collectors, a really good article may be found at FossilGuy.com. Also, a more detailed (and more technical) discussion of the various arguments for Meg lineage may be found here.  Regardless of the 'final' decisions on Meg lineage, feeding habits, etc, these teeth remain among the largest, and most impressive, of those readily available to collectors.

Texas Plume Agate

Plume Agate occurs in several locales, most notably in Texas and Oregon.  Brewster Co, Texas produces a significant quantity of Plume Agate.  Plume agate gets its name from the feather-like inclusions frequently found within the Agate (Cryptocrystalline Silicon Dioxide).  In general, the Agate occurs in igneous rock, though not all  igneous rock produces Agates.

One prevailing theory is that the the plume-like inclusions in Texas Agates result from metallic compounds infiltrating the Agate while will it is still in a gel state (think Jell-o).  Differing colors result in different color plumes, including Black, Red, Yellow and White.  For some reason, it seems that red plumes typically occur together with black plumes.  That is to say that a stone with only black plumes is not too unusual, but a stone with only red plumes seems to be especially rare.

Very fine Plume Agates will have very distinct 'plumes' in a contrasting color Agate.  More commonly (at least in Brewster Co. Agates), the plumes tend to be quite dense.  And, a popular approach to working Texas Plume Agates is to slice them quite thin (as thin as one mm) to allow the plume to be seen distinctly.  A clear quartz top is then added, and the entire assembly polished en-cabochon.  Displays of thin-sliced and back-lit Texas Plume Agates are sometimes shown at Gem and Mineral Shows, and can provide a breath-taking view of their wondrous beauty.