The Summer's Catch

Some of the finished products from our 2011 dig. Always exciting to find, then prep and now the restored beauty to @50million  fossil fish.

Mioplosus

We are blessed to hang out with these pieces of antiquity: Left to right Mioplosus@12 inches,2 nice Priscacara@ 8 inches, Speckeled matrix with diagonal Diplomystus@6 inches, and @7 inch Sting ray inlaid in banded matrix.

 We continue to restore and prep smaller and broken samples. Nice to work inside the shop while it snows.

What Kind Of Fish Is That???

This fish commerical reminded me of a fossil I collected.

Often we find things in pieces this one was in two pieces. The exposed tail was almost perfect, so one would hope the front would be equally as well preserved.

After uncovering the front portion it was apparent that mother nature caused this portion to explode. Disarticulating the head parts , backbone and body, yet one cn still see the body design.

The tail and the body are joined to make the fossil fish,over twelve inches of the predatory Mioplosus. Beautiful tail scrambled head make for an interesting design  showing the intricate fossilization process.

As winter lingers the fossil fish get bigger

With 6-8 inches of nice fresh snow I thought it would be a good time to look at some of the project fossil fish completed winter 2010-11.

Group picture shows two nice sized Mioplosus,a smaller diver Mioplosus, a nice sized Priscacara and a juvenille Priscacara.It is awesome to find this type of fossil fish , fun to prepare and exciting  to see the finished product.

Each sample is unique! Seldom to you encounter one that is perfect,each has its history and need for some restoration.The goal is to restore to make them look as natural as possible.

It is hard to imagine how the small fry grow up to the adult without being consumed by Fossil Lakes predator,like the Mioplosus.

The Priscacara developed a nice defensive system with the spike fins on their back and bottom,extremely hard to swallow.

Mioplosus

The predatory fish eating Mioplosus is very similar to todays bass, perch and walleye. This fossil fish is often found with small fish skeletons in the stomach area and with fossil fish lodged in it's throat.

Minature Collection



four inch Phareodus

 It has been a thrill to find the infant fossil fish,the junveniles and the adults.I continue to discover new ways to display all varieties of fossil fish. My latest technique involves sizing down the fossil plates to fit this windowed display. I can display all the same species or I can create a minature collection.

This shows both the top and the front

Left side and front Diplomystus and Phareodus



Left side and back Hypcacantha and Diplymystus



Right side Knigthia and Hypcacantha

2.5 inch Phareodus on the front completes the five species series



Summer 2010 Huge slabs

The summer of 2010 flew by while digging for fossil fish in the Dempsey quarry,northwest of Kemmerer, Wyoming.

These pictures show the quarry wall and the largest single slabs I dug out this summer. Each slab was nearly three feet wide and six feet long. As I seperated them from the wall I had to tumble them to their resting place to dry in the sun. The slabs came in 1 1/2 to 3 inch thickness and they stayed together as I tumbled,drug and slid them around.

The final picture is a palm frond recovered from our dig that will be restored at a later time.

Mioplosus,Restored and Framed

This was once a one piece specimen with minor restoration. It was sold and mailed by UPS to Texas, when the packing container was opened in Texas the fish was broken. Another replacement sample was agreed on and shipped out and the broken diver Mio came back to Wyoming.
The break was backed with birch plywood, glued in place , patching and restoration brought the fish back to near it's original beauty.

I decided to make a walnut frame to enhance and contrast the fish. The brass corner pieces added even another contrast.

The frame is @20 inches long and10 inches wide. The frame is @ 1 1/2 inches thick.

This fossil fish would look nice  on a small easel, leaned on a border, or hung from a secured wall hanger. I used 20 pound steel leaders for hanger wire which is screwed securely into the frame.

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.

The Shadow Fish (Pricacara)

Now an then we make a nice spilt that reveals the shadow of the fish we need to recover. I have attempted to photo the shadow image of this Priscacara. I used pencil to show the approximate size and outline of the body. At this angle you may notice the vertebrae, head region and dorsal fin.Using a different view (vertical view) and  exposure adjustment one can better see the fish outline .Now we can carefully remove the matrix covering the skeletal remains of the 50,0000 year old fossil fish.

Winter Fun

We spent two night and three days playing in the snow in the high Uintas Mountains.

Skied about 7 miles back into a Yurt, spent two nights and three days. Skied around, ate well and enjoyed friends company.

There were four in the party and Hanna the husky. We used our back packs and a couple of sleds designed to tow our cargo.

Pam and Windsor were awesome hosts!

The yert would accommodate about 10 people, had a wood burning stove, propane lantern, however snow melting for dish washing was a chore.

Going in was work, but worth every hill, coming out was a breeze.