FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Gerhard Niklasch]

Greetings FMF!

Which I am sure (after reading a fair number of very instructive and interesting threads here) must carry a second meaning of `Fabulous Mineral Friends'!

While I've started collecting specimens (by shopping, not rock-hounding) in earnest only recently, some love of crystals must have been given to me in my genes... I'm a mathematician by training and a software troubleshooter by profession; my parents have a chemistry background, and one of my ancestors (Rudolf Fuess - rhymes with `blues') you can find mentioned in the Tourmaline issue extraLapis no.3, p.26 of the English edition. His company in Berlin made goniometers among other things, widely used by the crystallographers of old when X-rays had not yet been discovered. Google `goniometer virtual museum Fuess' for a few more of those gadgets. Unfortunately, they were selling so successfully that not a single one has remained as a family heirloom.

What helped kickstart those genes into collecting was an exhibition about Tourmalines at the university-affiliated Museum Reich der Kristalle here in Munich in spring 2008. It went from basics to great detail about composition, shapes, growth, growth defects, etching, inclusions, thin sections, etc., largely based on Rustemeyer's book (which I've since picked up).

I like aesthetic pieces but prefer ones which are interesting one way or another... of course the nice-and-curious ones are best! Some of my acquisitions I'll be showing off in the collection-of board (and on mindat) as time allows. But I'm still early on the learning curve, and mostly trying to soak up knowledge and figure things out!

The single most valuable addition to my collection has been.... a stereo microscope. There's hardly a single specimen in which I haven't discovered something new and unforeseen when viewed up close. Even in pieces which I had examined closely with a hand lens before.

P.S. By the way, I can still read (even scribble) the old German handwriting, if it's not too bad - occasionally comes in useful when looking at old labels or index cards...

[Gail]

Gerhard, welcome!

[Linda Smith]

It is a pleasure to welcome you, Gerhard.

[Jordi Fabre]

Welcome here Gerhard!

Jordi

[Peter]

Dear Gerhard

It is great to see that an exposition draw your attention to this interesting field.
Please do let the people organizing the exhibit know of your appreiation and awakened interest. I am sure that you also are aware of mindat.org where as here people share information and I am sure you will make it to Minerelientage in Munchen in end of October and perhaps Sait Marie aux Mines show in Alsace, France in end of June.
I highly recommend booth of them.
Best regards
Peter

[Gerhard Niklasch]

Many thanks for the cordial welcome!
I certainly plan to be at the Mineralientage next Oct/Nov (it's just across town); not sure yet whether I can make St Marie-aux-Mines too, but I hope so.
And indeed I had first found FMF from the fabreminerals website, and fabreminerals from mindat, and mindat by googling some mineral names I had spotted at last year's Mineralientage - it's all connected!