Knightia Motion Mural

I often get requests for murals of fossil fish, showing rhythmic motion or different species of fossil fish, yet another favorite is the predatory chasing it's prey, finally the request for aquatic plants or palm pieces and a fish aquarium setting.

These are sometimes inspiring piece but they require so much time in gathering the specimens, arranging, cutting to size, preparing the specimens, backing and gluing into place, grouting the seams, sealing, framing and then making the shipping container. It is little wonder that they are expensive, yet a wonderful investment in natures antiquities.



This was a requested mural showing Knightia in a rhythmic setting, surrounds by a cherry wood frame. The fish plates were glued to a 3/4 inch piece of birch plywood, grouted the seams, then framed.

the frame size is 27 inches long X  7 1/2 inches in width 2 1 1/2 inches thick.

The back is secured by two plate and is equipped for wall hanging.

The plate would be a showy piece on a wall  or could be shown on an easel.

This was an enjoyable project during our monsoonal season in May.

The Last stormy Day of April

The weather lately has been uncooperative to plan anything outdoors, so I decided to take a fishing trip inside. I went through my storage boxes and caught this small string of fosil fish. It is always fun looking through the fish needing preparation. the ones needing little preparation are the easy catches, they are the first to go to the preparation table.

This pair of Knightia took my eye. They will look nice in a verticle or horizontal display.

                                                         I found another pair of small Knightia that seem to be traveling together.

After catching a few Knightia I decided it was time to catch a few Diplomytus. I land three of these delicate beauties.

WOW! What a guy has to do to get in a spring fishing trip

April Ray

A change of pace is always good and a new challenge brings a high level of activity to our mental and physical being. A spring begins to materialize with longer days, a few lingering snow storms, our song birds returning I decided to challenge myself by working on sting ray plates.After going through my boxes of projects  accumulated over the past two seasons I found three possibilities.I chose the ray that would take the most restoration as my first project. This ray needed a great deal of help.
The ray's disk is @ 7 inches in diameter. It is the peel of another project I will bring to life later. In the peel process I ended up with only about half of the ray. So I reconstructed the left side and most of the tail. In the reconstruction of the tail I decides to make it a fat tailed ray. Heliobatis radian was inlaid into a nice banded matrix with a small Knightia  present on the matrix rock. I chose to inlay the ray going the opposite direction of the Knightia. The balance allows a lot of flexibility on how this sample will be displayed. it shows nicely horizontally or vertically.

The overall dimension of the plate is 12 inches wide and 21.5 inches long.

March Madness

After chasing the wee little folks(leprechauns) out of my garge and cleaning up their mess. I found this large plate with a shadow that called out to be discovered.

I tooled off the matrix in sections. Exposing the head and mouth first then the body and the tail.

That matrix and the fish were cooperative and didn't flake away.

Now we can cut the matrix down to suit the size of the fish. It looks like 11x16 inches will house this twelve and half inch fossil fish. Now every thing is ready for the final touches and sealing.
With luck like this I must be part Irish.

Phareodus Testis and 4 Knightia

Here is an interesting combination of fossil fish preservation; a plate @11 x 14 inches with four poor quality Knighita and a 10.5 inch Phaeodus Testis that need a good deal of restoration. The Phareodus lacked a tail, the front of the head was gone and the body was housed on think matrix with four cracks running through the body.
By cutting the Phareodus out of it's original poor matrix then inlaying it into the Knightia plate we gained the structural integrity needed. This also added needed symmetry needed to to the Knightia plate. So we see some movement, prey swimming away from their predatory enemy and not so much negative space(balance).

Although this project required a good deal of patching and painting ,the end product is easier to appreciate.

Final touches Priscacara

With all plates present, we can see the gradual transformation from exposed rough plate, to the uncovered plate, then the finished product.

The plate received some touch ups of paint here and there. Mostly the fins that were restored needed the most attention.After the touch up the fossil material was coated with a preservative, which gives a glossy appearance and seals the fossil fish. The finished product is worth the wait.  With a 50 -55 million year old fossil there should not be any haste or rush for completion.

Priscacara Update

The Fossil fish (Priscacara) is getting closer to the final steps of restoration.At this point all the matrix is removed from the fossil, the cracks have been filled and the back is stabilized and it has been cut down to its final size. I had to restore two of the tips on the dorsal fin and one tip on the ventral fin.

Tomorrow I will touch up the fins and seal the plate.The plate is 6 X 10 inches and the fish is @8 inches.