Things To Do With "junk" Fossils

[caldigger]

Hummm, I've shopped at dozens of goodwill stores all over the country for over forty years and have never seen a fossil sold at them...makes me think the good stuff is not making it to the sales floor.

[Bev]

WOW Northstar, BEAUTIFUL! I love gardening! And I do fairy gardens, but you have truly inspired me to start using more fossils in the garden!

Goodwill, yea, I've never seen a fossil at a Goodwill or Salvation Army either!

Bev

[Regg Cato]

I remember when I finally got to some good sites and had to practice "selective collecting" for the first time...I have an interest in morphology so I like having large sample sizes of the same species for comparative purposes and to observe variation. But these are some good ideas of what to do with less-than superb material; I guess my current strategy is "don't collect top-notch material" lol; at very least I don't display it, it goes in the archives for study purposes.

[Beach Boy]

Mine end up in the garden or are taken to the local school when i do my fossil talk, although i always have to buy a couple of bags of sharks teeth to give to the kids because sharks teeth have the wow factor and unfortunately the area i collect from doesn't have them.

The fossil shown is a Dactlioceras Tenuicostatum which i prepped and discovered that the center had not survived.

Dave

[Ridgehiker]

Beach Boy...really like the fountain. Adds some character. I worked on trying to put together the pieces of a large Placenticeras ( the ones with the mineral ammonite). Wasn't all there so buried it upright in a garden bed showing just the good part.

True about shark teeth...same here. A shark tooth looks like something. Kids are thrilled to get one. Other fossils are usually 'ok' unless the child already has an interest.

[Bev]

Beach Boy, I too love the fountain! That is the perfect spot to display the fossil. But that wouldn't be a "junk" fossil for me! Nice one!

Northstar, I love that irridescent ammonite! What a treat to see that reflecting the sunlight in your garden. How creative too to bury the "bad" part and expose the pretty part!

[Ridgehiker]

Bev,

It's fun to also use surplus rocks in the garden. I use my chunks and especially slices and and put them in water filled dishes and with slices of agatized fossiliferous rock. This brings out the colour. Otherwise they just sit tucked away in a box. Kids like to sort through them when visiting.

[FossilDudeCO]

Hummm, I've shopped at dozens of goodwill stores all over the country for over forty years and have never seen a fossil sold at them...makes me think the good stuff is not making it to the sales floor.

I worked at Goodwill for a community service project, someone brought in a box of "rocks" and Goodwill told me to throw them away

I took the box home and it had mostly crystals (which I don't know about) and a couple of sharks teeth, look like they are from Morocco

[Bev]

Northstar, that is absolutely LOVELY! And the way you are using your shed antlers is great too!

[Katfish61]

We have so many laying around, I thought I would take a couple of pictures to post. The large pieces of ammonite around the pecan tree are from the Texoma area. The others are near my front door waiting for a better resting place. They seem to come from the trunk of my car to the front yard or sidewalk or patio or inside....well you get the idea!

Others, my husband gives to his students....

[Bev]

Katfish61 you have some beautiful pieces there! Thanks for showing them.

[grampa dino]

I still like the draw handle vertebrae, it worked well.

Schools love goody bags

I have a spot under the back porch where I keep all my seconds, any little kids

who come for a visit is more then welcome to go fossil hunting.

[Ridgehiker]

Grampa Dino,

Ha! I might be sneaking under your porch.

Katfish, great photo. I don't know what a pecan tree is but if it sheds ammonites, I need to grow one.

Reminds me, one year I put Dino fossils in little bags with a card of explanation and handed them out to Trick and Treaters at Hallowe'en.

[Katfish61]

Thanks guys, I added even more today. Two large complete ammonites from a creek north of me.....and no, they didn't fall out of an ammonite tree.

[Wrangellian]

Goodwill, yea, I've never seen a fossil at a Goodwill or Salvation Army either!

Bev

I saw a fossil or two in a 2nd hand/antique store once, but that's about it. It wasn't very good either, at least for the price they wanted. I guess non-fossils people tend to view fossils as either junk or treasure - no in-between.

[John K]

our "junk" specimens get tossed into the gardens along the sides of the buildings, especially under down-spouts. Along with the fossil material, other collected material ends up in the same place: agates, BIFFs, ugly geodes and other stuff that turns out to be not worth cutting.

My buddy "The Troll" was visiting a couple years ago, and spotted a Lake Superior agate next to our porch. He quickly snatched it up, and after licking it to admire it wet and pocketing it, started finding more, and even more.... he couldn't believe the honey hole of agates he had "discovered" that the rain gutter coming off my porch had exposed, and couldn't understand why we were laughing so hard.

[pinkpantherbeekeeper]

Another member posted some pictures of a fireplace with brachiopods in it. I might use that idea for the wall behind my free-standing fireplace. Except I have alot of coral hash I can use. Probably a fall / winter project as I have 54 sq ft to cover.

[Bev]

Another member posted some pictures of a fireplace with brachiopods in it. I might use that idea for the wall behind my free-standing fireplace. Except I have alot of coral hash I can use. Probably a fall / winter project as I have 54 sq ft to cover.

I have a friend who drills agates and creates cabinet knobs from them. However, I do cringe at drilling fossils, even junk ones. I have thought about epoxy though.

[Bev]

I thought you might enjoy this one. It is a fairy pond with tiny junk fossils. The tiny junk fossils now appear to be large! Some even reflected in the "water".

I took clear silicone and glued a little craft mirror to a flat rock. Then I put a liberal ring of silicone around the mirror and arranged small bits of matrix and fossilized matrix onto it. I smeared a little bit of the silicone out and created a beach with matrix sand. Then I poured the bits of rock and sand in the bottom of my matrix bucket onto it on the inside and outside to coat any silicone left showing.

This is a great project for the kids and grandkids, especially if you have a broken mirror around and some leftover silicone in the tube that needs to be used up or it will dry up.

Besides fairy gardens, these are fun for model railroad scenes, Barbie gardens (many of my fairies are made out of junked Barbies), for toy horses as a pasture pond, your imagination is the limit!

Bev :-D

[FossilDudeCO]

love the fairy pond Bev, very creative!!

[bruce]

A friend took his broken or reject fish parts from Kemmerer and glued them to the glass, surrounded by a cheap frame from Goodwill. When artfully trimmed and arranged, they looked neat. The frame was about an inch deep, so he moved the hanger to what was the front of the frame, and the back of the frame became the front of a shadow box. I think you could do the same with ammonite pieces, or crab parts, claws etc.

Edited August 29, 2013 by bruce

[Bev]

Wow Bruce, that is absolutely INSPIRATIONAL! Thank you for sharing! Bev :-D

[Wrangellian]

Interesting idea... They actually stay stuck to the glass? What kind of glue was used, I wonder. Looks good anyway.

[bruce]

He used a two-part epoxy.

[Ridgehiker]

Devonian coral spring planting.

'Planted' up a display of solitary and colonial rugose corals (and one tabulate). 20 different Devonian species. Solid specimens so they will survive the elements.. Interspersed them with sempervivum plants which will expand and fill in the gaps next growing season. 90 cm wide (3 feet).

Anyways..just fun to add in the garden. No expectation of a coral crop. When I'm over a hundred and too old to climb mountains, I figure I can go on a fossil expedition in the in the garden and find 'stuff' .