The Natural History Museum Inspired This! Part Two: Minerals

In my first post in the series "The Natural History Museum Inspired This!" I presented a display I crafted based on the stuffed bird specimens installed at Boston's Harvard Museum of Natural History. Today I would like to share another piece I did that was inspired by the museum's impressive Mineralogical wing (pictured below).



The display below doesn't look like much when it isn't lit. It is a wood lightbox I made, about 14 inches wide x 17 inches tall, and 4 inches deep. The face is 4-ply mat board; I used a mat cutter to cut 12 bevelled windows into it, behind which are affixed my mineral images.



To create the images, I used a technique I developed many years ago that involves layering color transparencies, carefully aligned so as to create a subtle sense of dimension; the use of more than one layer of imagery also saturates the colors, lending an intense, gem-like quality to the images. The area around each mineral image is blacked out from behind, so that the light only shines directly through the mineral. The result when lit is, I think, quite lovely to behold!



And it looks even better in a completely dark room:





Although I wouldn't go so far as to consider myself a "rockhound" I have long enjoyed casually collecting specimens that catch my eye, some of which I display in the metal box pictured below:



I recently picked up a box of these "Ed-U-Cards" from the 1960's that feature a mineral image on the front and give detailed information on the back of each card. They are pretty neat, and have some nice mineral images.



Last month I was at a bookstore and was excited to see contemporary reprints of many of the old "Golden Guide" field guide books that I remember from my childhood, including my much loved "Rocks, Gems and Minerals"! While the cover has changed, everything inside is exactly as I remembered it, including the vividly colored illustrations!







Below is an excerpt on Geiger counters from the book, and a picture of my own bright yellow Geiger counter (great fun in determining the radioactivity of vaseline glass and original red-glazed Fiesta ware!)







Thank You for joining me for part two of "The Natural History Museum Inspired This!" and now please excuse me while I begin preparing the third installment in the series!

Birch Bark, Spruce Root, and Cedar Containers

In this follow-up to my earlier post on Birch Bark and Spruce Root harvesting, I offer three examples of containers I crafted using my newly harvested natural materials! The body of each cylindrical container is of thin birch bark, stitched together using split spruce root lashing. The bottom of each is a disk of cedar wood, though the smaller container features a cedar wood disk in the construction of the lid as well. I can't claim to have devised the idea for these myself; I was (and continue to be) inspired by Jonathan Ridgeon's excellent "Bushcraft" site, which features an easy-to-follow tutorial on birch bark containers. I deviated slightly from the tutorial in the construction of the lid, which is basically a shorter version of the body inverted, and fits onto a birch-strip "lip" set into the upper rim of the body.

Old Fashioned Red and White Specimen Labels

An inquisitive FinderMaker wondered where I had found the red and white labels featured in the previous post, and although the source is no longer around, I am delighted to be able to offer some images and PDFs from which you can print your own sheets of labels. These are true labeling classics; try printing them out on sticker paper for inkjet printers, or print on the paper of your choosing and affix with a glue stick, or print them out on cardstock, punch a hole in the corner, and use as a hang tag! Their appeal stretches far beyond holiday use; enlist them in the identification of your various specimen collections (im assuming each of you has stacks of old cigar boxes stuffed with shells, buttons, bones, stones and bric a brac?), affix them to your journal with a date and "HANDS OFF" typed on, or stick them on old bottles and jars with stuff inside (Pinecones? Beach glass? Salt crystals from your trip to the Bonneville salt flats? Sand from White Sands National Monument?) to give your collection that special "science chic" appeal! Have fun! Happy Holidays!


These are 1.5" x 2.75" Click Here to download the print-friendly PDF


These are 2.25" x 4" Click here to download the print-friendly PDF

Gift Wrap, FinderMaker Style.

Happy Holidays! I've been getting into the spirit by finishing up several handmade gifts, and doing some wrapping using materials I had around the studio: Birch bark, white craft paper (inexpensive and comes in big rolls from Michael's; I use it to cover my work surface before starting a messy project), cotton string, old-fashioned labels, and a sprig of spruce! Simple, elegant, and affordable!