Rock Hounds? Any?

[Brindlebtch]

Yah, the road cuts in Texas used to be goldmines for fossils until the DoT started covering them all and growing plants to prevent erosion.

 

[Brindlebtch]

More poor photos!
Tried to get the gold pink and green in the tourmaline and was only semi-successful. It has a truly spectacular cut done in Idar Oberstein. The tanzanite color came out well, though out of focus. The black opal (doublet) came out sort of OK but the white opal washed out - it's actually pretty nice. Amethyst. The brownish stone on the right in the last photo is a sphalerite.

I have some other mounted stones I tried to get pics of and just couldn't seem to get anything reasonable at all, so I gave up.

 

[Bare bottom farm]

I'am a newbie to rocks but love them!!!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Brindle- Oooooooh ! Pretty stuff ! The pics looked good to me.

 

[verthandi]

Quote:
Beautiful! I can see the brillance of color in that stone, I bet it is stunning! It is so nice that you have some of your Dad's pieces. I am sure they are special to you. Your Dad must have had a lot of mineral experience, do you think that had an influence on the career that you choose?

 

[verthandi]

Here's two odd ones for everyone.

I believe this is obsidian, or sometimes called Apache tears? (It normally is blackish with white spots on the outside, it might also be volcanic. (Some of you that are more into Midwest rocks and minerals, will know more about it than I do.) It is not a material that I normally use, but someone asked that I cut a piece of it. It is soft and does not take a sharp edge, but the color is deep root beer.

This is a fire opal.

 

[Brindlebtch]

My grandpa was a serious rock hound and a builder. He has gorgeous cases all over a huge room covered with really nice mineral specimens he collected. Dad was a professor of geology at UofH and initially his specialty was mineralogy, but later changed more to a space geologist. Before he went to UofH he was the curator of Nasa's Lunar Receiving Lab. I have a piece of the Pueblito de Allende meteorite that he collected over 1200 lbs of.

My first year of college was pre-veterinary, but I didn't fit in well at A&M, so I switched to geology at UT. Probably should have stayed in hard rock. But yes, it did influence my career choice.

 

[Brindlebtch]

Cool!

Apache tears are volcanic. They are formed when lava from a volcano is exploded up unti the atmoshere and hardens in tear shapes on the way down.

My dad faceted a tektite one time, but it ended up a very unattractive murky green.

 

[verthandi]

Quote:
I am envious that you had both your grandpa and dad as inspiration. Sounds lovely to me.

Your Dad's career sounds fascinating. Anything I have learned I have picked up on my own. I truly thought of returning to college for mineralogy, but finally came to my senses, when I realized that I would be almost 60 when I graduated from there. Employment in the field might be slim at that age. lol

 

[Brindlebtch]

I have thought about returning to college, and then I think about final exams and get over it pretty quick.