FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Brooks]

Nice work Gail. You are right, in the old days before serious photography minerals were hand painted by such talents as John Sinkankas and those prints which accompany many of his collection pieces add to the value of the piece and their significance.

[parfaitelumiere]

it can be a good thing to do it again,maybe you're right,and now I have the time ,and I have photos to copy by the hand too!
Why not!

[Brooks]

Absolutely and you also get to satisfy two passions at once. I bought a new Canon Digital camera and plan to delve into mineral photography in the future. I see that Tom has become an outstanding photographer in his own right. The photos he has on his company website "Mineral Masterpieces" are wonderful. I am a firm believer that really quality mineral photos go a long way towards helping to market and sell the specimens.

[Gail]

Yes, we are rather proud of our Tom!

[Brooks]

Nothing better than being able to share a special interest with family. Alas, there is only one rockhound in this family, yours truly. We do have a multitude of animal lovers though. Almost as good huh?

[Gail]

Animal lovers are a must around here.

Here is the next process of finishing the mineral art, matting and framing. As you may know, I owned a framing business and art gallery, so grabbed one of my old, but excellent, mat cutters and did some work on framing today.
Here are some shots of the procedures....

[Gail]

And another.

[Gail]

And still, another.

[Gail]

Thanks to our Grandson for watching and learning today.

[Joan Kureczka]

Love the matting, esp on the malachite piece. Framing really is the icing on the cake.

[Gail]

[Gail]

...Patricia and Lindsay Greenbank piece we now own. Lovely fluorite, featured in the Greenbank supplement with the Mineralogical Record that came out in January.

[Gail]

This is the other one in our collection, ex Greenbank, same location. We couldn't decide which we liked better, so picked them both out to add to our collection.

[Dawn MinetteCooper]

They are both very beautiful--it's no wonder you couldn't decide between them. I've decided that I really love fluorite. I may even concentrate on fluorite for my collection this time.

[Gail]

Hi Dawn, so lovely to hear from you!

I have a cabinet completely set aside for fluorite, I filled it last year...the hundreds of other fluorites are dispersed amongst mini suites of locatlity, or continent, etc.
I find that they are a great teaching tool, so many cannot believe the diversity of colour or crystal habits and it's all the same mineral.

I really love the English fluorites, and to me it is a little bit of "home" as, although I have no accent left, it is where I was born and my family is from.

[Gail]

...Talnakh Cu-Ni Deposit, Noril'sk, Putoran Plateau, Taimyr Peninsula, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Siberia, Russia
thumbnail, 2.6 x 2.4 x 1.8 cm

Sperrylite.
A new addition to our collection, one I treasure!
Recently featured in the Mineralogical Record issue.

[GneissWare]

Gail,
This also is one of your paintings? You are very talented.
Bob

[Gail]

It is a photo, believe it or not, from the fellow we bought it from. Although I have it on my list of things to paint! I have five commisions at the moment, and so am really getting into the whole painting mode again, after years of not painting. It feels good.
I will add them on here as I paint them, just for grins.

[GneissWare]

Its such a painterly photo!

[Gail]

hee hee, yes....it is!