Monthly Archives: September 2012

A Donation to the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum

Anyone that knows me, knows that one of my favorite places in the world is the Keweenaw Peninsula. It is a beautiful, historic place, as well as my best rock-hunting area.

The New A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum.

In Houghton, on the campus of Michigan Technological Institute is one of the great mineral Museums in the world, one that, unfortunately, most tourists pass up. The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum located at 1404 Sharon Avenue. The seaman Museum is Michigan’s Official State Mineral Museum.

The Seaman moved to their new building last summer. The new building is still lacking the space to display all the museums collection, but it is all they could afford when forced to move from their old space in central campus location. The new museum building has room for expansion in the future.

Donating my Pink Petoskey Stone to Dr. Robinson at the Seaman Museum. I am pointing the case where the specimen should fit.

The curator of the museum collection is my good friend, Dr. George Robinson, who also teaches some of the geology classes at Tech. The director of the Seaman is Dr Ted Bornhorst. Based on all the work done in moving the specimens, and setting up all the new displays, I would also point out the work done by George’s wife, Susan. You might as well call her co-curator.

The new museum opened officially in August 2011. I told George that when the museum opened, I would donate a world-class Pink Petoskey Stone to add to their display case containing Michigan’s Official State Stone. I took a mineral photography class in 2010 and George saw the Pink Petoskey Stone when we photographed it in the class.

The world-class favosites I donated previously to the Seaman.

I have previously donated a Favosites specimen that is on display, but it was an honor for me to share my Pink Petoskey with the world. I know of no other museum that has a pink Petoskey Stone in their collection.

You can clearly see this Petoskey is Pink!

Next time you are in the Houghton area, check out the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum and look for my donated fossils.

I’ll blog more about the museum and show you some of the displays in the near future.

The Museum Collections

(as listed on the AE Seaman Museum website):

World’s finest collection of Keweenaw Copper District minerals

World’s finest collection of Lake Superior Iron District minerals

World’s most comprehensive collection of Michigan Minerals

One of the best fluorescent mineral exhibits in the United States

One of the largest systematic mineral collections on public view in North America

Collection includes individual specimens that are the best of their species

One of the world’s best suites of Fairfield, Utah Variscite

One of the world’s best suites of Yukon phosphate minerals

Guinness World Record copper specimen (satellite exhibit at the Quincy Mine)

Greenstones in the Rain (and other fun U.P. things)

The colors in the Keweenaw were about 30%, but we found spots. This tree was near Phoenix.

Our fall weekend in the Keweenaw was very productive.

The view from the top of Brockway Mountain indicates it will be a couple weeks before peak colors.

By going up Thursday, most tourist traffic can be avoided, and an extra day for rock hunting opens up. We found some nice greenstone at the Mandan.

Finding a nice Greenstone in all this rock is a challenge.

The best time to locate Greenstones is in the rain. The silky chatoyance just pops from the stones, both the loose nodules and those nodules still embedded in the matrix. We looked pretty wet and scruffy after a day in the rain, but it was worth it.

We had the Cliff Pile to ourselves on this drizzly day.

My favorite fall colors, maple Leaves and Greenstones.

Friday is also ‘pasty day” at the Mohawk Superettte. The locals purchase their pasties (pronounced pas-tee) in quantities, and we are happy to when we are in the area. We find them to be some of the finest pasties around. For those that do not know what a pasty is, they are a portable Cornish pie made from coarsely ground beef, with small cubes of potatoes, and rutabagas. You can find recipies on line. This was a hearty lunch for the miners, sort of an early version of fast food!

Any day is a great day to Stop in the Jam Pot and purchase a few delicious Muffins and rum-soaked, raisin and nut filled, brownies from the monks. Yum! (Closed Sundays, of course)

Makes me hungry just looking at the sign in Mohawk.

This rock ship at Kearsarge always makes us smile. Bonnie mans the ship at the Veterans Memorial.

While just aimlessly searching I saw a 3″ suspect just laying on the ground. This was just a suspect greenstone and may or may not develop into a winner. We also went to the Cliff mine, my favorite Prehnite location, and picked up some nice material to cut.

Whenever I go to the Upper Peninsula, I enjoy at least one day wire wrapping at Copper World in Calumet, and I really had a great time as usual. Talking to the customers, and answering rock and jewelry questions are a couple of my favorite things.

Sunday was another cool day with some scattered showers, we went out with some new rockhound friends. Bonnie found some nice little greenstones, and I found a very nice 2″ stone that has to be cut from a rock.

From left to right beginning at the top: Mesnard Datolite, Rose Quartz and Quartz with Copper, Franklin Datolite, Yellow Keweenaw Point Datolite, Patricianite with Silver and Copper.

While up north, I also located a source for some rare and unusual things like Patricianite with silver, and pink crystallized Datolite. Let’s see what kind of jewelry I can make.

Close-up of the Rose Quartz Cabochon.

A couple other things we did were donating a polished Pink Petoskey to the Seaman Mineral Museum (Blog coming), and I walked into Copper World Sunday afternoon and met a couple from Dayton, Ohio that had just purchased an exceedingly rare large Greenstone with a centrally embedded copper crystal, as well as a Petoskey Stone Pendant. It’s always nice to meet with owners of my jewelry. It means a lot to me to talk to them and answer any questions, and I think that the jewelry means a lot more to them when they can say they have met the artist. I could have stopped in any time, but Karma (I learned about this from Earl) brought me in at that particular time.

Patricianite with silver and copper inclusions.

Now I have some exciting new U.P. gemstones to cut, polish, and wrap up. It will be a great rest of the month.

The above stones I cut this morning. Enjoy!

Working on U.P. Projects

Today let’s talk about some of the projects I brought back from the Upper Peninsula.

Sue's "super" Thomsonite

Sue has been a faithful customer over the years and she has brought me some amazing local stones for custom pieces in the past.

This time she brought one of the largest and most amazing Pink Thomsonites I’ve seen in a while. The cabochon was found in the Keweenaw 40 years ago, according to an I.D. tag that was on it. Thomsonites of this size and quality are very scary to work with because of the value and this one because of the size. Thomsonite sometimes just blows apart when you work with it on the grinder. Any harmonics created by the machine grinding wheels can send shockwaves into this material that sometimes just blows the stone apart.

I am always up to a challenge, but I also would hate to ruin a $500 stone. Thomsonite varies in hardness quite a bit, as well as crystal structure.

I had to re-work this stone to balance the shape and the dome. Believe me it was scary. This stone was very hard and solid (fortunately), and I was able to reform and re-cut it .

I was very happy with the way the wrap came out. As is my normal theory on wrapping I did not cover the beauty of the stone, yet I wanted the wrapping to be as elegant as the stone. I liked the way it came out; as did Sue.

Unusual blue coloration enhances this great little agate.

Nancy's ring.

Our friend Nancy brought several stones for me to assess. She enjoys the U.P. and rock hunting. Her daughter, Elizabeth, is also a rockhound. Several of Nancy’s stones had possibilities, and cutting when I got home produced an unusual small agate from the end of an otherwise plain stone. The stone had a strange bluish area. I have never seen this coloration in a Lake Superior Agate. It is hard to explain and lucky for you I took a picture. I made a ring for Nancy that reminds her of the U.P.

Elizabeth's wonderful pendant.

Elizabeth found a very cool ledge agate the next day and after cutting it and finding out how nice it was, I made a great little silver pendant for her. All these projects I really enjoyed. I love making my customers happy. Thanks to all of them.

You are not going to believe what is inside this stone.

The third project was my wife Bonnie’s anniversary pendant. You have seen the amazing copper-infused Datolite Pendant, but I don’t think you saw the ordinary looking rock it came from. You never know what might be inside the crust of a rock. I think that is why I love making jewelry. I’m the first person to actually see the inside of the rocks I cut for my jewelry.

The 35th Anniversary Pendant...SHE LIKED IT!

I would be happy to do some custom work for you. I can take your stones and create something wonderful just for you! What’s your dream jewelry? Let me make it for you.