Ludwigia Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 I have a very proficient and capable customer (actually he's become more of a friend and colleague with time) when it comes to seeking and finding good fossils, and he struck again last week, bringing me quite a large ammonite with a diameter of ca. 40cm. for preparation. He sent me a photo of it which he took during the extraction procedure. The matrix was pretty tough, so he ended up having to extricate it in several pieces, most of which he glued back together before he brought it to me. I did some stylus work on it to begin with and then we were faced with the decision of whether we should retain the last piece at the end of the living chamber. Either like this: Or like this: We finally decided on the second alternative, since the first would have meant a little too much additional modelling work, so we chucked the piece. We also decided to stick to working on just the one side for two reasons, the first being that it was chock-a-block with oysters and concretions, and the second being that he would have had to pay for a lot more hours of work which probably wouldn't have made all that much difference in the end. Here's a photo of the other side. I then spent a good number of hours with the air abrader on it, alternating back to the fine stylus when necessary in order to remove larger chunks of matrix once I was sure of their position. The abrading was slow going due to the hardness of the matrix, but it was worth having the necessary patience for it as can be seen below. There is a huge tube worm on it and the transition from phragmocone to living chamber can be distinctly seen. The shell is somewhat dented in places, particularly by the inner whorls, but I find that doesn't necessarily detract from the whole picture. I then filled in the gaps with my trusty Apoxie sculpt, painted it and applied the beeswax finish. I also cleaned up the back side a bit. The whole procedure took roughly 10 hours. Here's the final result. Fissilobiceras ovale. 40cm. ovale zone Wedelsandstein Formation Early Bajocian Middle Jurassic From the Wutach area. 15 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belemniten Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Awesome work Roger Many greetings from Germany ! Have a great time with many fossils Regards Sebastian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted May 29, 2020 Author Share Posted May 29, 2020 1 minute ago, belemniten said: Awesome work Roger Thanks, Seb. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nala Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Wow ,ammonite resurection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TqB Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Nice work on what must have been a tricky prep. Tarquin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Another fine job... Leaving one side unfinished makes sense, as you're likely to only be displaying one side of such a large ammo anyway, but if it were mine I think I would have opted to keep the living chamber extension, for the sake of completeness and size! but of course financial considerations can be compelling... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilNerd Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Great work as always Roger! It never ceases to amaze me how you can take an ammonite puzzle like this and make it look as good as you do. The tube worm epibiont is very cool too! The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. -Neil deGrasse Tyson Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted May 29, 2020 Author Share Posted May 29, 2020 59 minutes ago, Wrangellian said: Another fine job... Leaving one side unfinished makes sense, as you're likely to only be displaying one side of such a large ammo anyway, but if it were mine I think I would have opted to keep the living chamber extension, for the sake of completeness and size! but of course financial considerations can be compelling... I would have kept it as well for posterity, but the customer is always right, right? Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted May 29, 2020 Author Share Posted May 29, 2020 2 hours ago, nala said: Wow ,ammonite resurection! 2 hours ago, TqB said: Nice work on what must have been a tricky prep. 40 minutes ago, FossilNerd said: Great work as always Roger! It never ceases to amaze me how you can take an ammonite puzzle like this and make it look as good as you do. The tube worm epibiont is very cool too! Thanks for your comments, guys. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 11 hours ago, Ludwigia said: I would have kept it as well for posterity, but the customer is always right, right? I guess so. I meant to say I like the worm tube too.. a thing like that is an added bonus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Very nice how you can bring life (so to speak) back into these ammos you prep. and once again Roger, you have done a top notch job. May I ask what media you used for this project? RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 It looks wonderful I really like the rich colour you have brought out of it. Great Job cheers Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 1 hour ago, RJB said: Very nice how you can bring life (so to speak) back into these ammos you prep. and once again Roger, you have done a top notch job. May I ask what media you used for this project? RB Thanks Ron. I always use iron powder 150µm. 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said: It looks wonderful I really like the rich colour you have brought out of it. Great Job cheers Bobby Thanks Bobby Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Beautiful nice work, cool colors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 1 minute ago, Troodon said: Beautiful nice work, cool colors Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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