Pretty shells

[connorp]

6 hours ago, Jackson g said:

Indecisive me is putting the blastoids on the back burner. I have two Fragiscutum glebalis trilos in need of cleaning that I think takes priority. I'm not very experienced cleaning bugs, but it seems to be going well. This first one is only a partial. It's missing the pygidium and a bit of a cheek, but its worth keeping and putting in the time in my opinion. It's kind of slow going so far.

Nice bug. Did you collect it?

[Tidgy's Dad]

Pretty little trilobite. 

[Jackson g]

22 hours ago, connorp said:

Nice bug. Did you collect it?

Not this one. 

 

Done scraping the right side, time for the left. Probably will try abrasives for inner crevices by the eyes and top of the cheek instead of needle.

 

Also put in 50 more minutes into one of the blastoids. Cherts slow going too, but I've got it 3/5 done now. Most of the time left will be detail work/ scribing the matrix how I like it now. The food grooves are all intact and coming out clean too. Too much rain and humidity to keep going today.

 

I found the photo of it before cleaning too, here it is pre-prep. This stuff is a pain in the butt, but at least I'm getting better with my prep skills. I used to like all of my fossils cleaned out of the rock so I could put them in my cases, but now I rather enjoy crafting my own little art pieces and showing the work put in sometimes. I think most people who prep know how easy it is to accidentally scribe into a feeding groove, split a delicate pleura tip, poke through an arm crevice of a crinoid calyx when it was covered in calcite, or whatever that situation may be. Its painful, but easy to do. Especially early on, or if you're a guy like me who spends maybe a couple hours a week scribing. It's cool to look back and see how far I've come too.

[Jackson g]

Split a 50lbs chunk of chert, and took this promising piece with me.

 

Here are the crinoid calyx and brachiopod after prep.

[FossilNerd]

1 hour ago, Jackson g said:

Split a 50lbs chunk of chert, and took this promising piece with me.

Awesome finds Jackson!

[Jackson g]

19 hours ago, FossilNerd said:

Awesome finds Jackson!

Thanks. Prep was pretty tedious because the crinoid calyx though large, was very fragile. It is one of the largest chert calyxs I've found or prepped yet. The yellow "shell" you see on it flakes off (just by touch) rather easily, revealing just the plain druzy cast underneath. Not unusual for the big ones preserved in chert. It's pretty nice, but of course I'm more attracted to the brachiopod. It's a nice, big steinkern that came out perfect. I did keep the chert matrix for the brach as well, but I left it in my car trunk somewhere. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Beautiful! 

[Wrangellian]

Nice ones again! I'm glad you're keeping some of the matrix also, for the external impressions.

[Jackson g]

Heres a calyx steinkern I'm currently working on with "arms" intact, and also a nice bryzoan that still needs cleaning on the backside to compliment it.

 

[Jackson g]

On 10/5/2020 at 8:04 PM, Wrangellian said:

Nice ones again! I'm glad you're keeping some of the matrix also, for the external impressions.

Thanks! I'm glad the few of you who peeked this thread enjoyed it as well, and I also thank and appreciate all the feedback. This will be the last update to the thread. I have about 2/3 of my belongings packed up now. While I'll still continue to clean up my 3 big boxes of Burlington for prep material, alas my days of sharing these vast but rarely appreciated rocks are over. I really cannot believe how far I've come in my almost 2 years of this hobby. I started knowing nothing, but am smart enough to learn how to find all of my own hunting spots with no help. If I can, so can anyone! Almost everything here was found in my small home county in missouri, but there are a few finds from Benton County as well. If anyone young or old from the Henry County, Missouri area ever wishes to learn about the lay of your land, pm me. 

- Jackson

[Tidgy's Dad]

Lovely bryozoan. 

Your thread has been looked at nearly 6,000 times, not bad at all. 

Don't forget as well that while a lot of members look and don't comment, they still may be appreciative and also this is a resource for none members who come in looking for information. 

My threads only seem to have a very few loyal followers as well, but I know they are being looked at by others and are proving useful and enjoyable to some people and will be there for people to see way into the future. 

Thanks for this wonderful thread, Jackson.