FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Gail]

I thought it might be interesting to show how to prepare 53 cases of minerals for display at the ECGM show in Springfield, Massachusetts as well as moving on to show highlights of this years show when the time comes. So this is the section of pre-work and how we are going about deciding which minerals to display, what themes we will work with and still leave you guessing enough to perhaps come to the show?


Last year Jim and I flew up to see how Herb and Moni Obodda did their 53 cases. I was with them during set up and really saw the masters at work.
They are a cool couple, very level headed and work well together.

I can see that Jim and I might not operate quite so smoothly, but we are agreed on many of the concepts for our displays.

Marty and Rose Zinn sent a cabinet home with us last year so we could lay out minerals and see how they would fit, etc .This is a great advantage as we can take photos and box the specimens and stands and label them 1- 53, each box will have a photo of the set up on the top so we can move quickly to load them. The area is secured during set up time and security is very tight, thank goodness. Most vendors leave you to your business knowing there is plenty of social time later to chat and visit.

[Gail]

This is a start of our beryl cabinet, with the painting of the red beryl as our featured piece that they used for the show poster, tee shirts and advertising.
Fred Wilda, the wonderful mineral artist, painted ours and had limited edition prints made. The subject for the painting is in the middle front of the cabinet.

So we have set up a rough idea on showing all the beryls. I expect we will tweak things as we go. I don't plan to show them all to you as we need to keep some for a surprise.
But this is the second part of laying the mineral case out. The first part was drawing the cabinets and numbering them, then deciding what goes in what cabinet. Sort of a master plan.

[Jordi Fabre]

Great idea to show us how you will proceed Gail. A fine support for other people that in the future could need to do the same!

Jordi

[Gail]

Thanks Jordi, I thought it might be fun to show some of the work involved.

JIm and I spent quite a bit of time, over the last year, talking about how we wish to display at the show, and we have changed our minds many times. The funny thing is that people keep asking us how we can come up with 53 different case themes, and our problem is how to narrow it DOWN to 53 cases!

What we are doing at the moment is pulling more than we need and putting them in the case to see what works well with the other minerals alongside.
Here we are laying out some Topaz from all over the world and seeing how the light works, etc.
We know that the fluorescent light is not the best, but at the show they have mercury vapor lights on the ceiling which give a nice crisp light to tone down the fluorescent yellow light.
As you can see the Katlang topaz is not all that "pink" under these lights but we are pretty sure it will perk up at the show.

[Gail]

Some of our topaz under consideration.

[garchin]

Hi Gail,

Pretty Pink Topaz you have got! Is it photosensitive?

Cheers, Gar.

[Gail]

No, it isn't which is nice.
We have others that are though, so we keep them well away from light.

[chris]

Hi Gail,

Great displays; I really like the pictures in the background.

Christophe

[Les Presmyk]

I am going to answer Ed's comment about the "shoehorn award" (for putting the most minerals in a four foot case) in the proper topic. There have been a couple of contenders over the years at the Tucson Show, most notably Gene Meieran and Evan Jones. For those of you who remember Gene's competitive exhibits, as excellent as they have always been, you should have seen them when he had 33% to 50% more minerals in the same space before the shows. Evan's cases at his home are beautiful but there is not much space between specimens.

I like the overal look of the few exhibits you have show us so far. It seems to be a natural tendency by all collectors to want to display as many pieces as possible. However, I would submit that you do the displays and the specimens an injustice if you try to place too many pieces in a case. First, one should always consider security because if a case gets bumped, you don't want specimens tipping over on one another. Second, the more pieces in a case, the more likely a person will be to overlook some or most of the specimens. We all go into sensory overload. We remember the quality of the cases at the 2008 Tucson Show but how many of us can describe even two specimens from each case, without looking in American Mineral Treaures or the MR issue?

The Springfield Show is really quite an event. While it is a major undertaking to display there, and it does take quite a bit of effort, it is well worth the experience. Evan Jones and Paula and I really enjoyed it, along with Bob Jones' help driving all of the specimens to Springfiled and back. With the significant changes in our collection since that time, and considering the theme wasl Arizona, Paula's thumbnails, among other collections, were not there. We would consider doing it again.

For anyone who has done one or two cases at Tucson or other local shows, it seems quite daunting. For those who have been dealers at shows, it is only 75 or 100 flats of minerals, that just happen to be your collection.

[Gail]

Les, thank you!
I always love to hear your interpretation and comments also.

I am definately pushing for less is best, and having to deliver that many minerals it is perhaps wisest too.
I owned an art gallery for 23 years, I know about display.

We were the guest exhibitors at the Westward Look resort show this past February with 157 minerals of all sizes, PLUS we had a 6 foot case full of Spann oddities with quite a few more that weren't in the WL. So we learned a lot just doing Tucson this year. It was a good way to gauge how to pack and transport.

I am strong on colour balance also, and Jim is respectful of my inclinations. I am respectful of his sense of science, region, etc. We work well together.

Bottom line folks, this is FUN. Hard work? YES. But life is full of adventures, and that keeps you young and challenged. Viva La Adventure!!!!

[Les Presmyk]

That is the other consideration when one considers how many specimens that need to be moved, something on the order of 1000 to 1500 (53 cases times 20 specimens per case is almost 1100). It is quite an undertaking and a tribute to those with large enough collections to do so, and the willingness to share with others.

Now, to jump to Jim's defense, of the 27 cases we displayed from our collection, the one that drew the most comments, from Charlie Key to one couple who were close friends with Professor Spertini (we have a spertiniite from Bisbee), was the case entitled "Arizona Oddities or I Did Not Know That Came From Arizona". It was nowhere near the prettiest case, but it had some unique pieces, not so much for world-wide occurences, but certainly for Arizona. So, there is a place for the scientific, even if you only give Jim one or two cases to explore these areas.

[alfredo]

Gail, Apart from light sensitivity, another factor that might be worth considering is heat sensitivity. Closed cases can get hot with the lights inside, and crystals with liquid inclusions don't always do well. (Anyone remember Herb Obodda's exploding aquamarine?)

When Rock transported his collection to Springfield, one or two pieces suffered a little damage; Not to scare you, but I suppose minor "wear and tear" is inevitable even if one is super careful. One has to balance the risks to ones collection against the benefits of displaying it, the joy and education you bring to the collecting public. You have enough rocks that you can leave the really fragile ones at home and still bring plenty of the less sensitive ones.

Well, you already have experience displaying, and have undoubtedly thought of all these points already, so I'm sort of preaching to the choir, but it doesn't hurt to remind people that you are taking on some risks, and not just a whole lot of work!

Cheers,
Alfredo

[Les Presmyk]

One of the main reasons Paula does not like to take displays to shows is the potential for damage. When we displayed at Springfield, we did not hurt a single specimen. However, we left our best wulfenites at home and did not display some of the most fragile calcites and aragonites.

Alfredo's advice is sound. Make sure you weigh the fragility of the piece, whether because it is obviously delicate or because it has inderent issues such as inclusions, or heat or light sensitivity, in making your decisions. No single specimen will make or break a display. Okay that is probably true most of the time but maybe not always.

[Gail]

Ahem, back to the show preparation.

[Gail]

...Looking over minerals, seeing if they are mounted in the best way and remounting those that are not.