decim
05-06-2009, 04:53 PM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/malachite_585x435_554151a.jpg
Malachite is a carbonate mineral that often results from weathering of copper ores found around limestones. Renowned for its vibrant green color, it was used as an artist’s pigment until around 1800 and has been mined for over 3,000 years at the so-called ’King Solomon’s Mines’ in Israel. Although the Greek root means ’bunch of grapes’, as an architect it always reminds me of the exquisite vaults of the Alhambra palace in Granada. To see more go to www.richardwestonstudio.com/images.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/agate_585x435_554075a.jpg
Banded agate, with an island of quartz framed by the concentric rings of agate ?eyes?, formed by slicing through the hemispherical formations that often develop near the outer surface
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/agate102_585x435_554148a.jpg
In this banded agate most of the rock void was filled by an infusion of gel that crystallised as horizontal rather than concentric bands. The blazing reds and oranges are most likely due - as in artists’ pigments - to cobalt. Not surprisingly this image was quickly christened ’The Turner Sunset’.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/agate128_585x435_554159a.jpg
Even the basic processes of agate crystallisation are disputed by mineralogists, and an extraordinary formation such as this near the perimeter of a banded agate utterly defies explanation. This seems to me one of the most powerful and remarkable of all the agate images, so complex that one can be forgiven for thinking that organic processes must have been involved.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/agate177_585x435_554078a.jpg
This agate shows an unusual combination of concentric and level banding, distorted and highly coloured to form an exceptional and rare image.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/calcite_585x435_554160a.jpg
Pure calcite crystallises in the form of a perfect rhomboid, a six-sided solid object in which the opposite sides are parallel, and has perfect cleavage in three directions. This image has been skewed to square and the colours reversed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/charoite_585x435_554180a.jpg
Discovered in Siberia in the 1970s and named from the Russian ’chary’ which means ’charms’ or ’magic’ (some claim the name comes from the River Chara), charoite is purple in colour and often has a distinctive swirling appearance interrupted by yellow-brown inclusions of tinaksite crystals. The black ’rocks’ in this specimen are due to of aegirine. This image is taken from a long, narrow specimen that evokes an aerial view of a purple stream.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/chinesepicturestone_554181a.jpg
The geological origins of Chinese Picture Stones are not well documented. They are a form of limestone, enriched by dendrites that result from water-borne minerals - most commonly manganese - being carried in solution between bedding planes. Chinese Picture Stones are rarely more vividly life-like than this. I continually marvel at the way the chemical micro-processes precisely echo a real beach, grading from sea, to sand seen through shallow water, to wet and eventually bone-dry sand fringing the ’dunes’.
Malachite is a carbonate mineral that often results from weathering of copper ores found around limestones. Renowned for its vibrant green color, it was used as an artist’s pigment until around 1800 and has been mined for over 3,000 years at the so-called ’King Solomon’s Mines’ in Israel. Although the Greek root means ’bunch of grapes’, as an architect it always reminds me of the exquisite vaults of the Alhambra palace in Granada. To see more go to www.richardwestonstudio.com/images.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/agate_585x435_554075a.jpg
Banded agate, with an island of quartz framed by the concentric rings of agate ?eyes?, formed by slicing through the hemispherical formations that often develop near the outer surface
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/agate102_585x435_554148a.jpg
In this banded agate most of the rock void was filled by an infusion of gel that crystallised as horizontal rather than concentric bands. The blazing reds and oranges are most likely due - as in artists’ pigments - to cobalt. Not surprisingly this image was quickly christened ’The Turner Sunset’.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/agate128_585x435_554159a.jpg
Even the basic processes of agate crystallisation are disputed by mineralogists, and an extraordinary formation such as this near the perimeter of a banded agate utterly defies explanation. This seems to me one of the most powerful and remarkable of all the agate images, so complex that one can be forgiven for thinking that organic processes must have been involved.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/agate177_585x435_554078a.jpg
This agate shows an unusual combination of concentric and level banding, distorted and highly coloured to form an exceptional and rare image.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/calcite_585x435_554160a.jpg
Pure calcite crystallises in the form of a perfect rhomboid, a six-sided solid object in which the opposite sides are parallel, and has perfect cleavage in three directions. This image has been skewed to square and the colours reversed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/charoite_585x435_554180a.jpg
Discovered in Siberia in the 1970s and named from the Russian ’chary’ which means ’charms’ or ’magic’ (some claim the name comes from the River Chara), charoite is purple in colour and often has a distinctive swirling appearance interrupted by yellow-brown inclusions of tinaksite crystals. The black ’rocks’ in this specimen are due to of aegirine. This image is taken from a long, narrow specimen that evokes an aerial view of a purple stream.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00554/chinesepicturestone_554181a.jpg
The geological origins of Chinese Picture Stones are not well documented. They are a form of limestone, enriched by dendrites that result from water-borne minerals - most commonly manganese - being carried in solution between bedding planes. Chinese Picture Stones are rarely more vividly life-like than this. I continually marvel at the way the chemical micro-processes precisely echo a real beach, grading from sea, to sand seen through shallow water, to wet and eventually bone-dry sand fringing the ’dunes’.