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Hello all, With the start of this month I have gotten back to doing some fossil prep. I am still very much learning but I am happy with how this one turned out. It's a Callianopsis clalamenis nodule from the Pysht formation of Washington State which I found this past January that preserves two sets of feeding and defensive claws as well as some disarticulated shell material. This prep was fun and I am excited to try another shrimp, they are a welcome break from working with very hard pyrite nodules from Yorkshire. Before prep: After about half an hour with the scribe, the first two claws are showing: After about an hour and a half: Finished. . . for now, until I smooth the matrix: I hope you enjoyed, Benton

With the start of 2023 I decided to take a break from my long running prep project and prepare out something smaller to start the year off. I collected several of these C. clallamensis shrimp nodules last January and in my previous experience they tend to prep well. This was one that I had split on the beach so I knew that there was a large-ish claw and hoped nodule contained the rest of the arm also. The nodule before prep Unfortunately this nodule didn't contain an arm but rather a bunch of fragmentary shell remains and one large disarticulated claw, but the claw tip glued back on nicely and I decided to have a play with shaping the matrix resulting in an interesting bowled out effect. In total the prep took about 3.5 hours with my Ken Mannion TT pen and I'm quite pleased with how much I managed to undercut the outside of the nodule without breaking it away. While not the best shrimp this was a fun prep to start off the year. Thanks for having a look