FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[katherine.Dunnell]

lighting. lighting, lighting... did i mention lighting?

Coming from a museum realm, the other things i notice right off are font sizes, and legibility. There are public standards for font size when it is black type on white background and a whole other size required for white on black (as it is harder for the eye to read).
How far is one away from the information? IS there TOO much information and how is it presented, graphically? or text based?

The best thing to do is to go to the cases you like and start breaking down why you like it. Does the backdrop engage you? Is the density to high and your eye doesnt know what to look at first, and therefore you move on ?

On average, mineral collectors/presenters tend to have a high density of specimen in their cases, to the point of overload. My personal opinion is that vendor cases influence how we present minerals. Vendors put out a lot of specimens because they want to sell, and i think we get use to seeing that density. From a museum POV, we scale back that density because the average person gets fatigued at densities that are too high.

When a specimen is really really special give it some breathing room, as that creates importance.

If people are interested, there are some great books on museum display practice. The Manual of Museum Exhibitions, Altamira Press, Copyright 2002 is a bible.

Best
Katherine Dunnell
Royal Ontario Museum

[Les Presmyk]

I think there are two things that drive the number of specimens most collectors try and exhibit, and neither one of them is how dealers display minerals. First, most collectors do not have the luxury of unlimited space and as a result, always have more specimens than space. This is certainly something dealers are confronted with at a show. Since most people do not want to stop and go through flats, the more specimens out on display the better chance of selling something.

The second is just the visual impact of all of the color from a distance in a case where there is little or no space between specimens. Virtually every miner's collection I have ever seen has specimens virtually stacked on top of one another. From a distance this makes for an attractive display of color. However, if a person is trying to segregate specimens upon closer examination, that is where the overload begins.

I agree that an attractive display with separated specimens is the better way to go. I have a good friend who is able to put as many specimens into a case as anyone I have ever seen. From 5 to 10 feet away, the cases are an explosion of color. As you get closer it becomes difficult to really concentrate on individual specimens and the greater the possibility that notable specimens will be ovelooked.

Of course, he could take out half of the pieces and the collection would still be top-notch but then we would have to look at half of the collection in boxes or drawers. Now you come to my collection, with limited display space and 90% of the specimens in drawers and flats. I need a room with about 30 feet of cases in order to display my collection properly. I am not even trying to talk my wife, Paula, into letting me do another addition to our home to accomplish that.

[jimB]

A sure way to ruin a display is to end up with an empty looking case. Rememeber, a case is very rarely filled with minerals. That same case is mostly filled with air, or empty space if u will. If a case looks empty there is no display technique existing that will correct this. Imagine a 4 foot case with liners but no risers. Even if you have 4 inch specimens on the floor 2 inches apart the case will look completly empty and the best specimens will look lost. To have a satisfactory display get the air out. I usually try to raise the bottom of a case 2 to four inchs depending on which case I am in. 2 inches is enough for a 4 foot case and 4 inches works well in a 6 foot glass display case. Add to that 3 risers again between 2 and 4 inches depending on the size of the case. This little effort will reap a large reward in a pleasant appearing display. A sign stateing the theme of the case in back center while only two dimension gives the illusion of "filling "the case.

Another effect I try very hard to eliminate is the ditch effect. That is with no bottom riser (only a thin base liner) the display look like it is sitting in a ditch. Fill that space and this annoyance is eliminated.

Personally I do not like seeing the "drop away Illusion". This illusion causes the back of a display to appear to drop away from the level line. In some cases it makes the back of a display appear 1 or 2 inches lower than the front of the case even though the case bottoom is level with the floor. To cure this raise the back edge of the bottom riser an inch (more or less) so now the bottom is not level but appears level. Some cases have this malady some do not. Different colors and fabrics must contribute to this.

After this set up your display to eliminte shadows where possible. For sure do not have shadows resulting from poor riser arrangment. In a Tucson case you have only two light bulbs in a four foot case. Frankly the lights in the center glass cases are a disaster but I do not see any correction to this any time soon.

Clean and neat carrys a lot of weight, stained or spotted risers are plain terrible. Labels are important to a display. All lables the same size and shape would be nice but it isn't possible. For sure a variety of lables is an eyesore. Lables should blend well. License plates are uneeded and detract from a clean appearing case.
I hope this helps.