There's no denying it. I've become a rock hound. It's not like I spent $50, $300, or $1000 on one chunk of mineral (which it's possible to do), but I did just spend twenty bucks on rocks that could have been a CD, DVD, or video game. The mineral prices were very good though compared to the major gem, rock, and mineral show I attended last month.
In the beginning, I just knew what I liked when I saw it. Now I know I'm quite fond of fluorite and can pretty readily recognize it in all its forms. I bought four cool pieces today, two in a dark blue I hadn't seen before. As an added bonus, two out of three vendors didn't add sales tax to their sticker prices.
For now I keep them in their open jewelry boxes on their cotton beds, but I envision making a little purple, blue, and green Kryptonian-like city from all my varied pieces. I just need to figure out a display format that will keep them from getting chipped or broken if they're jostled unintentionally.
Just another layer of geekiness to add to the collection.
One year ago at TTaT: Three Breaks: Part 2
Technorati tags: fluorite, minerals, rock collecting
Cool!! My mom wanted to be a geologist, and she had amassed a fairly amazing array of samples as a teenager (living in the mountains and desert in Oregon and Nevada, she had access to a lot of cool stuff.) When she came home after WWII, her stepmother had thrown it all out, thinking it was just junk. Growing up, she always took us out to hunt for interesting samples. Cool thing to do, Claire!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, M. Too bad about your mom's samples, but I could see how that could happen. I've picked up my share of cool looking rocks, but I've never gone on a proper hunt. Sounds like fun!
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