Diver Mioplosus

My next adventure for fossil fish preparation is a 12 1/2 inch Mioplosus, the plate is 17 inches long and 8 1/2 inches wide. The matrix is 1 inch thick. This is an interesting project because the fossil fish settled into the sediments at an angle. The head is nearly 1/2 inch above the tail end. When the fish is prepared it will appear the head has more dimension the rest of the body.

The plate required some paleobond adhesive for a small crack on the plate, which was sealed from the back side. I had to fill and elmer's glue a few smaller cracks. The head and tail were preped by hand. We had to do some restoration to the body as some of the scales peeled.

This finished out a nice deep bodied sample of this predatory species

What's for Dinner

I decided to do a change of pace today.Thought I would fix dinner first before I prepared fossil fish.
Using about a pound of ground elk, onion, parsley, season pepper,chopped celery,sliced black olives, a quarter cup of barley for filler, 2/3 of a container of ricotta cheese and fresh spinach, a couple of hands full.
Cooked the burger, added other ingredients, mixed together, then I stuffed the ingredients into the large pasta snail shells, chopped up zucchini squash, layered squash with the filled shells, covered with mozzarella cheese.
Will bake on 325 for 30 minutes and dinner is severed.

19 inches of the Predatory Phareodus

As this project reaches completion I am humbled by my inability to restore things the way they should be. It seems as I set out to match paint colors or blend colors I get into trouble, then try to camouflage my goofs.
The learning curve continues to grow with each project,this keeps life interesting and me humble.

Final Project 2009 Phareodus

I finally got this beast put back together and patched things up as best I could. It will be interesting to see what it looks like when the paint restoration and final seal is done. I hope I can match colors well enough to make it look appealing. Plate will be16 X 22 1/2 inches, fish size is @19 inches.
It's hard to imagine fish of this size and bigger swimming around looking for other fish to eat.

As this fish came out in three major pieces it required a backing board, filling all the cracks and paint restoration. It was to large and rare not to restore.

Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays

Here it is December 1,2009 and I have one more big projects to go from my fossil fish projects of 2008. I think I can make it happen.
I am rounding stuff up for Lyman's craft show this weekend, should be fun.

Worked through all my ash plate paintings for the craft show and finsihed up a triple enlay plate. The enlay was a thin Priscacara with broken tail and lost fins. We did some restoration work and enhanced it with some acryillic paints.Both of the fish to the right and left were also enlayed,making this a four species plate.The band was the imprint of plant materials enhanced  for contrasts.

I have a trwo foot Phareodus on the work bench awaiting some backer board for enlaying. Perhaps This will gret completed this week.
Got to get my Christmas decorations done before the next cold snap.