This is a frivolous post. I have not assigned spoons for this, nor is it anywhere in my various lists of priorities. My lists of priority tasks are long; my spoons are short. I can't really afford this. But sometimes you just have to kick over the traces and do whatever you damn want to. So I'm going to ramble for a bit.

tl;dr I ramble for quite a ( Read more... )

This evening I took delivery of a new microscope. A proper microscope. Coming soon a 10 MP camera, and depending on results this may be followed by some extra lighting and optics. But hang on, I hear you say, don't you already have a microscope and camera? What have you beeen using all this time to take pretty rock picktures? Witchcraft and old ( Read more... )

Seraphinite is beautiful stuff. It was discovered relatively recently so it's not all that common in shops, but it makes beautifully patterned polished stones for jewellry. The reason it's called Seraphinite is because the patterns resemble wings, in gloriously gleaming shades of green and silver. Yes, like recent features pietersite and chaoite it ( Read more... )

Charoite--like pietersite--is another lovely chatoyant rock that is sadly hydrophobic. I know, I say that all the time, but this time I really mean it. I already had a contact sheet of images I was quite happy with, but I couldn't resist having a bit of a play to see if I can get a bit more focus here and there out of my new glass slide covers.

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Pietersite, oh pietersite, what heartache you've caused me. Since my first look at a piece of tumbled pietersite I've wanted to get in and take a closer look, but it's really resisted my efforts to capture its beauty. I've made some pretty pictures, but it's been frustrating knowing how much better they could be. But gradually I've come closer and ( Read more... )

Really starting to feel the rollercoaster side effects of using amitriptyline as pain relief. Yesterday got hit by depression (as anticipated - I was actually pleased it held off as long as it did) and then had a sleepless night last night/this morning with gradually increasing all-over jitters. Pain isn't a problem though so I hope to work out ( Read more... )

Anyone here in Perth who can feel the humdity will not be surprised to learn that it's hazy out there.

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Received the Plumage poster in the mail today. After getting the first round of 30 x 40cm ones back I made this one lighter and was sufficiently hopeful that I ordered the bigger print at 50 x 75cm. The good news is the colours came out really bright, so that worked well.

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I'm in the mood for a process post so I thought I'd string together a few related pictures showing how I go from a slice of rock to something I'm proud to claim is Art. We'll follow the journey of a piece of East Java plume agate.

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Lake Bonneville is in Idaho, and sports some rather lovely moss agate.

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