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Posts Tagged ‘photography’

Fluorite Rocks!

Posted in Art, Creativity, Earth, Photography, Science, tagged , , , on November 5, 2011| 3 Comments »

There are a ton of reasons why I love fluorite. One, it’s a gorgeous mineral.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fluorite-Quartz-226207.jpg

Two, it comes in rainbow colors. Three, it feels soothing to have it around.

Four, it’s good for your teeth, and five, certain types of fluorite actually glow in the dark!

Can you see the unusual way the light moves through this crystal? Fluorite works with light in a very different way than most other minerals. According to The Beading Gem’s Journal:

Just recently China put on display in Wenchang, Hainan, the world’s largest luminous “pearl”. These are not really pearls as we know them but a rare kind of glow in the dark (phosphorescent) fluorite. The Chinese call them legendary luminous pearls or yemengzhu and believe touching one will bring good luck and fortune. The first yemengzhu fluorite was discovered in a Guangdong tungsten mine back in 1982. Since then, new and larger deposits have allowed several giant pearls to be made. This latest, the largest so far, has been valued at 2.2 billion yuan or about $331 million.

"This giant luminous pearl specimen, which weighs in at 6 tonnes and is 1.6 m (5 feet) high, took 3 years to grind into a sphere! " --from The Beading Gems Journal

Six, apparently it is good luck…and is supposed to aid in the development of intuition and creativity.

Mostly though, I just think it is captivating and I could stare at it for hours…

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Here is a video of the giant luminous pearl. (Yeah, sorry, it’s in Chinese.)
西瓜波值 22 億　唔係 啩 – YouTube

And since they oddly chose not to show the five foot phosphorescent bead actually glowing, here is a very rough approximation of what it would look like. (Wait for it…!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F-JubniQ68

[Laugh all you like, but I dare you to find a better video of glowing fluorite anywhere on the internet. ]

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Are there any particular minerals you seem to have a fondness for?

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Ode to Eggy Weggs! Egg O’Lantern with a Side of Clockwork Orange

Posted in Art, Film, Photography, tagged , , , , on October 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The eggs! They just continue to fascinate. I started to crack one this morning and instead I made a jack-o-lantern. Actually, an EGG-O-LANTERN.

The shell had cracked and fallen off but the inner membrane remained intact. (Honestly, such a week of egg weirdness!) You shine the light through and the delicate creature glows in perfect Halloween style.

I was almost expecting to hear ‘Ode to Joy’ erupt into my own personal movie soundtrack, I was so excited. Speaking of the old Ludwig Van, let’s visit Alex in A Clockwork Orange and see what one ought to do with all these mysterious egg-like creatures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89GSUhzT3Ow

What’s that, Alex? Smash them? How terribly anti-social of you! Now be a good boy and take your pills. There you are. All better then?

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Here are a few more of my photos of the lovely Eggy Wegg. I’m curious if you like them, so click that button on your favorites:

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Do you look for beauty in the mundane?

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Alternate Uses for Egg Whites–Digital Art Contest #1!

Posted in Art, Contest, Digital Art, Photography, tagged , , , , , on October 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »

During last week’s pie baking frenzy I was inundated with extra egg whites. Like a good like baker, I saved them and googled “alternate uses for egg whites.” I should have made meringues. I could have slimed them on my face. A nice healthy egg white omelet awaited me. But no. I abandoned them in my refrigerator, with the best of intentions, until today. And I discovered neglected egg whites dry into beautiful topaz crystals.

So anyway, this cracked me up. Naming the photos was particularly fun…”Reconstituted Egg”? Fantastic.

Now it’s your turn. Take these photos, do something with them and enter the final products in my Digital Art Contest #1 -Alternate Uses for Egg Whites.

Submit by Saturday, October 22.

Winners announced the week following. First place wins a post dedicated to you and your work. Contact me with any questions or if you need help transferring files.

Thanks! I can’t wait to see what inspired art work comes of this!

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