Dear Fossil Forum friends,

I'm Gerard Lee, nice to meet you all! I live in Hawaii, which is a very young volcanic rock in the middle of the ocean. There are no fossils or interesting rocks here, at least none worth mentioning right now.

I love fossils, but never really got into them because before the internet they were hard to get here. But about 10 years ago I started mail ordering fossils, after being awed and profoundly moved by Riccardo Levi-Setti's book on 'Trilobites'. They were good times for me. Though I didn't collect them myself, each little trilobite was an object of wonder. Knowing that once, so long ago, it was alive...! Feeding, swimming, mating...really alive! And though it's now dead and turned to stone, it -was- and maybe that is enough meaning for the universe.

It makes me think, though one day I will be dead and gone, and go unremembered, isn't it enough that for a moment I too lived?

I dabbled with shark teeth, brachiopods, ammonites, but mostly I collected Trilobites. They are second only to dinosaurs in representing the past history of life in the imaginations of children.

Nowadays I collect fossil fish. I am streamlining my collection, I want to focus on Green River fish. I am not immune to the lure of the rare and the wonderful, but somehow the common species appeal to me. I can empathize, well, anthropomorphisize them more easily. Elrathia trilobite. Knightia fish. And I too am just one person among billions. So, Knightia is my mascot fish:)

It doesn't hurt at all that there are many sources of do-it-yourself fossil fish preparation kits. Extinction Fossils, Indiana 9, Ulrich's Quarry, and other fine dealers make Knightia and friends available to hobbyists. For me, in fossil-less Hawaii, they are a God-Send.

I have prepared (and ruined) 2 fish to date.

I got this Diplomystus from Mr. Robert Bowen on Ebay. They sell wonderful prep kits for the beginner!

It's grossly over painted, and the a-nal fin is totally paint, I forgot to excavate it before sealing the fossil:( Still, it's my only Diplo.

And here is Prisky...

I made the mistake of dyeing Prisky a red brown, which looked terrible! So I had to paint over her with a khaki paint and then dry brush her bones back to the black color they originally were. Over sealing gives it that unnatural 'plastic' shine. It's terrible to ruin -any- fossil, but realistically one has to learn somehow... Too bad though, Prisky was a great fossil, fully complete, just her tail was shifted over a bit, but as you can see it's fine.

Anyway, sorry for the terrible pics. Even with the failures, I am utterly hooked on prepare-it-yourself fossil fish kits! I have 2 more Knightias from the F-1 18 Inch Layer coming in the mail, and I am checking with Ulrich's Quarry for the postage rates for their kits too. (By the way, Prisky came from Brent's Fossil Stuff store on Ebay, check him out! Brent has the hugest selection of fossils in the Ebay stores)

This week I have to mail some fossils to Lithologia in France, and maybe conclude some other trades. I look forward to chatting with all of you here on the Forums!

Be Blessed,

Gerard