FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

This topic: "The new generation", started recently and for some reason generate many messages related with women and her relationship along the history and our modern times with the mineralogy. So considering the own life of this history I decide to start a new topic with it. The background of it, starts here:

https://www.fabreminerals.com/forum/Message-Board/viewtopic.php?p=1040#1040

>Another think you underline is the apparition of women on mineral collecting (but with a special memory of some celebrate classic, Margaret Anderson, i.e.). Well, I celebrate this fact as a direct and natural consequence of the paper of women in our society. So, welcome Tracy and Gail (as standard bearers of all mineralogist women)

>Carles Curto

[Jordi Fabre]

>Anne Voileau not only wrote some articles for Le Monde et les Mineraux, she was the publisher of that journal throughout its entire run. She had, and possible still has, a very fine miniature (size of specimen designation) collection of minerals.

As far as I know Anne Voileau is not more on the hobby, unfortunately. The French magazine "Monde et Minéraux" closed long time ago and her very fine collection was sold, also long time ago.

We could consider her successor Marie Louise Navarro, mineral dealer & collector, and also organizer of the French mineral Show of Narbonne.

Jordi

[robynahawk]

I want to say thanks to Jordi for this category and to all for the great info on this forum.

Hey Gail - need something to do in your "spare time"? I hear that Rock & Gem magazine may be for sale...it would be great to have a mag that covered the whole field or Rocks, Gems and Minerals!!!! LOL!

Robyn Hawk

[Gail]

Bite your tongue woman!
egads!

Spare time? What's that???

[John S. White]

There is such a magazine- Rocks & Minerals

[mmauthner]

I believe "Rocks & Minerals" is also the longest running magazine on the topic...isn't it, John?

It covers fossils as well.

Mark

[KDF-TX]

OK, so I've been lurking here for a while (well, since digging my collection out of storage in January) but I just have to say Gail and Tracy's specimens are awesome! Incredible taste.
And Gail, what a beautiful home! I take it the cabinets are custom? Gorgeous!
I plan to go to the Houston GMS show in September... Hope to see ya'll there and see some of your mineral treasures in person.
Keep those pics coming. Really inspiring.
Kevin

[Gail]

Thanks Kevin, great avatar!
We are thinking of going to the Houston GMS also, to go socialize and see what's cooking.
Are you coming up for the Dallas show on May2,3 and 4th? It is a great way to see lots of wonderful minerals without driving across the country, although in Texas that is not easily said!
The cabinets are made by Keith Williams in W. Virginia. Since we wanted to display our minerals throughout the home, this was a good way to go. I love wood and they fit in with the "feel" of our home.
It is a good way to show other women that you can have rocks and minerals on display in such a way that it doesn't detract from the coziness of a home. ( I saw so many collections hidden away when we first got into collecting and swore that would not be the case with us. )

I am often saddened when a woman tells me she won't "allow" minerals in their home. I could see if they had lots of little children and worried about breakage, but just because they see minerals and rocks as dirty is frustrating to me. I would rather move a nice vase of flowers out of the way so I can plunk a mineral down in its spot!
Such is life....

[robynahawk]

This question isn't necessarily about Female Collectors - I just happen to be a female starting a collection...LOL!

As I said before - I came to Minerals following a life of rockhounding! So - what is the difference between a mineral "specimen" and a "sample" collected from the ground.

What makes a "specimen" a "specimen"?

Robyn Hawk

[Tracy]

Hi Robyn -

I posed a similar question as part of my "favorites" thread (did my jumble of breccia coated with fluoroapophyllite qualify as a "specimen") and received the following answer from Mark Mauthner:

A "specimen" is an individual object that for some reason is its own entity or is noted for being distinguishable as a unit. In the mineral world it can be a crystal group, a single crystal, a chunk of a massive (not well-crystallized) mineral. Your photos, and Gail's, feature a single specimen each. "Specimen" and "sample" can be closely related terms in this sense.
Botanists and zoologists use "specimen" in a similar way.

Hope this helps.

Tracy

[KDF-TX]

Hi again Gail,
The show in Dallas next month is mostly gem & jewelry from what I can see. Will there be many minerals displayed and for sale there? Besides, I'm closer to Houston/Humble.
I was lucky with a mom that only didn't allow reptiles in the house. I grew up in west Texas with grandfolks in Arizona...
Enjoying your posts, keep them coming,
kevin

[robynahawk]

So this is where I have a problem - I have a beautiful piece of of Lepidolite with Pink Tourmaline crystals growing thru it.

Since I picked it up at a mine site - it was blasted from the wall and is not a "single entity"

This is my question...do none of these samples count as specimens? Sorry if I sound dense - but it seems that each aspect of the Gem & Mineral world has it's own set of terms!

Robyn Hawk

[Les Presmyk]

Here is one way to look at the specimen/sample questions. From a collecting standpoint, all specimens are samples but not all samples are specimens. From a mining/geology standpoint a sample is something that is crushed up, assayed and analyzed. A specimen is something I used to save from either the geologists or the ore chute. Don't get hung up on semantics (advice my wife wishes I would follow) and get to the real issue. If it is a piece you enjoy enough to purchase or pick up, take home, wash off and place on display, it is a specimen. This is not dealing with its quality, just the fact that it is a specimen. So, your lepidolite and elbaite would fit this definition.

[Pete Modreski]

The "specimen" vs. "sample" discussion was kind of getting a little silly & overly picky. Your pink tourmaline in elbaite "piece" certainly counts as a specimen, Robyn. As oer what Les said, geologists may collect "samples", which are often intended to be divided, sorted through, broken up, crushed, analyzed or assayed, etc.--any or all of the above. Mineral collectors have specimens--those are the ones they deem worth keeping.
Cheers, Pete

[robynahawk]

Thanks all !!! Now I have Specimens!!!! YAY!

Robyn Hawk