FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[marvsT/Nminerals]

I saw an opaque blue tourmaline group mineral at a small gem and mineral show at Freeport, Illinois several weeks ago labeled as "schorl" from Brazil, no other locality information given. The dealer had several other pieces that were totally black. All were of the same short, chunky habit. A year and a half ago when this dealer was at the gem and mineral show at Monroe, Wisconsin he had the same material with the addition of two other blue schorls which I purchased. Whether or not the pieces are schorl or foitite is a good question. Marv

[alfredo]

It is quite common for tourmaline crystals to be chemically zoned, with two or even three species being present in a single crystal, and impossible to verify without some rather complex and expensive analytical equipment, which even professional mineralogists don't always have access to. (Ordinary microprobes are often insufficient for determining the species, as they don't "see" Li, H or B, and can't distinguish Fe(II) from Fe(III).)

For these reasons I think collectors should learn to be happy just labelling their crystals "Tourmaline", and forget about nitpicking about whether it's a schorl or dravite or foitite or a very dark elbaite. (Isn't "Tourmaline" a more beautiful-sounding name than "Schorl" or "Foitite" anyway?)

[Tracy]

Personally, I like the sound of "schorl" - still I will concede that "tourmaline" rolls off the tongue better.

Back to Patrice's comments: thanks for the input. Upon revisiting the start of my thread I noticed that I never posted any photos of the back of the curved fluorite specimen, so here are a couple showing the size and shape of the depression (second photo is blurry but gives a good idea). It's quite possible that a large crystal (amazonite or even quartz) would have shaped the specimen. I also note that, under window lighting, the fluorites look more blue-purple than green-purple (regrettably I have no locality information beyond what I had posted: Crystal Peak, Teller County, Colorado).

More photos of favorites to follow soon, I have a new group almost ready to go....

- Tracy

[Linda St-Cyr]

Tracy, your skeletal Chinese calcite haunts me! It is so wonderfully bizarre, I have flashbacks to it when I least expect it. So evidently it is now a permanent resident of the collection in my head. Thank you for adding to my mind's collection!

Linda

[Tracy]

I finally have time to do this posting, I've wanted to for quite some time!

Russ Rizzo (Cal Neva Minerals), who helped me start my thread by photographing my "mystery" fluorapophyllite for me, did me another favor and shared his photos of some fascinating and fun specimens that I've acquired from him. I tried to photograph them on my own, but the images were terrible - so thanks Russ for helping me out!

Here they are...

- Tracy

[Tracy]

I thought I'd share my newest treasures acquired in Tucson - all oddities of a sort...

Photo #1: Amethyst "arch" from Artigas, Uruguay; 8.3 x 7.5 x 6.5 cm. I like the formation.

Photos #2 and #3: dyscrasite on arsenic from Shaft 21, Pribram, Czech Republic. 6.5 x 4 x 3.5 cm. The dyscrasite is etched from the arsenice matrix and the crystals have a really interesting spiky-dendritic habit. I was lucky to get 2 good shots of it so I'm posting them both. Who says arsenic minerals are all ugly? :-)

Photo #4: I have a lot of trouble taking good photos of quartz. This is a curved (bent?) faden quartz with little bits of smectite and monmorillonite from Tui, Wana, Waziristan, F.A.T.A., Pakistan. 8 x 6.5 x 2.5 cm. The faden must have gone through a rough growth period - it reminds me a bit of the "tectonically violated" quartz which was in the Quartz Oddities display. Sadly it's hard to see all the detail in this photo.

[Tracy]

photos #5, #6 and #7: the prize, a fantastic pair of golden calcite crystals(acquired from Jordi) from Chanhua, Zhejiang, China (2003). 17 x 5 x 1.5 cm. The main crystal, which is almost 15 cm long, loooks like a faden but actually has a hollow tube running through it (I think the smaller crystal has a tube running through it too). Sue photographed it at different angles to highlight the growth striations which can be seen running the length of the crystal and showing how it formed. At the base, where the crystals join, there are hexagonal, plate-like whitish-gray calcite crystals (a different habit). Visually stunning and fascinating, I've already gotten lots of compliments on it!

Photos #8 and #9: not from Tucson but from the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee comes this curious find - read the label! 11 x 6 x 4 cm. The original Philadelphia Academy label didn't accompany it, but on the back side you can see the "tattoo" label which is characteristic of specimens from there. I can't say for certain that it came from the Academy collection, and it's not very beautiful, but for only $4 who could say no? :-)

That's all, hope you like them...

[Tracy]

ps:...well, those aren't ALL the neat pieces I got in Tucson, just the most photogenic... :-)

[Linda St-Cyr]

Tracy, you are well on your way to filling a case of stunning Oddities should Tucson ever decide to revisit that topic. Or maybe a local show will?

[Tracy]

I'm testing out my new camera, it has a macro lens! I used to own an SLR but have lost the skills needed to operate it, so I have to start all over...I love how close I can get to the specimens now.

We are renovating the bathroom but I took time to get a little practice with my camera. Here are a couple of photos of a cute little scepter cluster which I recently got from eBay. The scepter on the right is only formed on one side due to contact with the larger scepter next to it. Sorry for the terrrible background, I don't have Photoshop...and I know my lighting etc still needs work (I did my test with natural sunlight - I was trying to see how much detail I could capture).

Will continue to post others as time permits. I've gotten some neat pieces lately.

- Tracy

[Debbie Woolf]

Great photo Tracy :0) I've been looking at getting a camera myself what make is your new one?

Debbie

[Tracy]

Thanks Debbie!

I got a Canon Powershot SX10 IS with 20X optical zoom. Canon has since moved on to the next generation SX20 IS which has more media-related "bells and whistles" (better for shooting movies and the like) but the SX10 is all I need. A nice feature on both models is the viewscreen which pivots in all different directions so I can lay the camera flat on a table and look at the viewscreen without hunching over...

I believe production of the SX10 has ceased, but both the SX10 and SX20 appear to be rather popular. Hope this helps.

- Tracy

- I forgot to mention: on th specimen, the main scepter head appears to be damaged where it connects to the "stem," but I think it's just overgrowth.

[Carles Millan]

Tracy,

Your last photo taken with the new camera is better than the average you've posted so far. But you should still practice a lot more, since mastering a camera is not done in one day. Try also with light sources other than natural light. Take more than ten shots of each specimen, in different positions, from different angles, then choose the best ones and retouch them a bit with PaintShop Pro (cheaper) or PhotoShop (much more expensive). They have several fancy and very simple functions, as "One Step Photo Fix", that will make your life easier.

Good luck!

[Tracy]

Hi Carles -

Thanks for the words of encouragement. No question I need more practice! The biggest difficulty is finding space in my cluttered house to set up a staging area. So I make do with what I have. The next string of photos will be tests of lighting, background, angle, and the camera too ...please continue to send more input.

I will look into PaintShop or PhotoShop too. One day I hope to be able to take pictures as excellent as yours.

- Tracy

[alfredo]

Tracy,
As a lover of grey minerals in general, and wierd ones in particular, I have to congratulate you on the grey/black apophyllite! I never saw one of those before. Any idea on the cause of the dark color?
- Alfredo