Natures-Illusions abstract rock images are hanging on the walls of Mama’s Minerals in Albuquerque NM and Santa Fe Gallery so come by and look them over. Recently updated with our Instagram feed from Natures_Illusions_Colorado these art prints are now for sale in the Mama’s locations in New Mexico. BuzzFeed is set to cover this in an upcoming article, as well. A lot of Dennis fine art prints are printed on archival ink jet canvas, fine art lustre papers and now in the ChromaLuxe metal prints to display in your office or home interior design. We also have been working a lot lately with several interior designers to put together custom sizes and installations for corporate and luxury home interior furnishings.
Odd and Fascinating Stuff - Tucson 2018
OK, so here is the odd stuff that struck me at the Tucson Show this year within just a few days of my visit.
Dinosaur Skeletons were in quite a few of the tents and coop sites. All were very nice specimens and really well put together, complete and quite realistically displayed in the space allowed. A lot of teeth and big bones!
The other type of display was the wide variety of fossilized ferns, fish, creatures and sea life that was on display. Some were small and affordable, and some were huge and very pricey.
They had these in many areas and all were such great marvels to look at.
New Agates - Tuscon Show 2018
Sliced Geodes and Agates are always exciting to view and photograph! Natures-Illusions has many in the collection and has photographed & scanned several in a variety of methods to bring out overall detail and composition, as well as focusing in on some of the more minute details found in the translucent treasures of the geodes layers.
This year we saw many styles and types of display of the geodes and agates at the Tucson show. Some of the larger specimens that were 2’-3’ in diameter were thicker slices and highly polished set up with their own iron stands and pedestals for display. One of the more unique methods of display and décor use was the lamps that were made from combining many sliced geodes in a clear matrix and making a vertical cube that could be back lit into very nice lamps.
We also saw a few tables starting to be made from a collection of various sliced geodes which were very nicely done.
Of course, most of our favorites came home to be displayed in the window and backlit with natural light from the outdoors. Watch for some of our new creations on Natures-Illusions and let us know which ones are your favorites. If you like, we can make you a big print or canvas of that favorite image!
Art Show - Tucson 2018
Natures-Illusions highlights from various tent and displays during the visit to the 2018 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
Dead Camel Jasper from Nevada with its brecciated patterns of red, green, beige, white and blue was a new find and photographed quite nicely.
Utah Lace Opal from Milford CO, Utah has a nice variation of white-gray to rose pink and deep red, as well as a mix of various other colors. Hope to get over to their shop on the west slope of Colorado and get into some of their finer specimens to photograph.
Another local western find was with some folks in Utah that had beautiful examples of the Clay Canyon Variscite that had to have at least 15 different minerals and colors in the samples.
Not having a lot of slab cut Amethyst, it was pretty cool to visit a booth from Turkey that had some very nice thin cut slabs of this with Agate mixed in that was a nice highlight to the purple of the Amethyst.
Swamp Bogwood or Gary Green Jasper is a petrified swamp wood that has a unique teal and lime green color from various minerals that transformed the cells over time.
Gem and Mineral Show - Tucson 2018
The “BIG SHOW” continues to amaze and reveal more treasures from the earth each year we attend and explore.
In our quest to find more of Natures-Illusions” we find many mineral specimens along the way and continue to collect rare and unique rocks that have some of the most interesting designs, color and patterns hidden within them.
This year, we viewed several extraordinary exhibits of Metorites and got a chance to try and lift one small, but heavy specimen. Wow! They are much heavier that you can ever imagine! But wait, the price of a sliced one will put you back in your seat!
Ammonites are always one of our favorites to look at during the show & photograph. Many different patterns and colors with some of the outer shells of the fossils having a beautiful pearl appearance, but the inside is the real treasure. Watch our Natures-Illusions.com site this year for many of our projects on Ammonites, photos, collages and fabrics.
Taking a break from so many rocks and so little time, I had a chance to get the “Bite” on with one of my dinosaur friends, just for fun!
Another project that we hope to put further into the web site are some of the collection of Petrified Wood examples that I have been photographing along the way. This is one of my favorites and we saw so many great displays from extremely large slabs to nicely finished small rounds.
More new to follow and watch for our gallery of images of new Natures-Illusions additions!
Petrified Wood at Tucson Show
Natures-Illusions draws me back to the many displays of Petrified Wood examples from our desert South West US, as well as some odd varieties from around the world. This year, there were so many dynamic slabs of the traditional red hued petrified wood in extremely large sizes it was overwhelming! Some of them brought wood workers out to create stylish wood table frames on them, as well as with the larger slabs to prop them up with petrified wood table legs. I sort of felt like I was visiting the set of the flint stones show! Only the dinosaurs were just skeletons! Several displays also had unique combinations of smaller pieces slabbed and mixed in with larger slabs end cut to create a very stylish table top composite of all them fused together in one slab. There are so many ideas that you could use these slabs for, and so little time to create the projects in.
Frothy Mix
This stone has a solid base of earth tones with some nice turquoise green veins in the overall rock giving it a grounded earthy focus at the bottom. From there, the frothy mix of tan and blue seem to explode up into the air with it’s white spray of color that themes the creation of brown, blue, white, tan and green textures that are wild and challenge your imagination.
Pastel Plank
Although this is a rock, what caught my eye was how closely it resembled a plank of wood with all the grain, texture and wood like pattern. Very nice as a horizontal image, this also works well in vertical spaces. You can ponder the various knot hole detail or the smooth grain design while figuring out how the green & red tones / accents ended up in this amazing piece!
A View From Above
This stone has all sorts of activity going on with all the different areas, thus it reminds me of an “aerial view from above” looking down on several aqua green pools, icey white patches and a bunch of small tide pools all over the surrounding patches of textured rocks forming a surreal landscape. Lots to look at, lots for your imagination to consider, enjoy!
Jazz It Up
With the New Orleans Jazz musicians offering up an unlimited range of music, this piece also offers up a wild mix of Jazzy colors, textures and designs in it. Very fun to look at and wild enough to keep your mind busy looking for different shades, tones and textures. This stone renders a nice vertical image as well as horizontal, so will fit nicely on most any wall. I liked the green, ochre, tan and the rust colored spots set out by the cracks in this stone.
Brown & Green with Copper
These are great rock contrasts with robust deep brown tones, mixed with blacks, white quartz and then exploding with the green accents into the lighter portion of the rocks. With the white quartz throughout the stone, each layer is set off by another vein of green, rust, tan or black. What makes this one special is the inclusion of the copper that has been located in the brown layer, thus setting off the shiny metal against the darker brown. Another fun one to keep looking at for many different patterns and shapes!
Momba Mixer
Nature’s irony in this image shows a canvas of deep brown color with veined textures of turquoise green setting the stage for an emerging figure in this natural setting. The fleshy figure with deep blue and black accents is coming out of the middle of this stone in a sort of momba like dance of color. Much like our Frothy Mix stone, this one has a completely different story and design coming out of the middle of a deep brown setting. I am always amazed at what each one of these stones holds in its natural composition. Momba has such a nice mix of color and the figure is just the beginning of the story.
Sliced Geodes
Our Natures-Illusions collection has both geodes and banded agate slices.
A geode typically begins when a cavity forms in a rock, Geodes can also form in sedimentary rocks such as limestone or sandstone. When the geode forms, its outside crust will be older than the crystals inside. Most geodes have interiors made of either quartz or calcite. Quartz crystals are silicates. Calcite’s main ingredient is calcium carbonate. Calcite with magnesium and a trace of manganese forms a nice pink dolomite layer, while iron in silicate accounts for the purples of amethyst. When a geode was close to a lot of heat, that could change the color. Geode rocks contain iron, magnesium, sulfur or a host of other elements. Geodes that have been filled completely over the years may exhibit various unique designs of the material that have been inside them. Some of the more dynamic specimens are coming from Brazil. Geodes can be found all over the world. Areas with the most geodes, however, tend to be deserts, volcanic ash beds, or areas with plentiful limestone.
In our Sliced Geodes series, we have many samples of front viewing and back light point source lighting to show off the translucencI of these specimens.
View our blog on Banded Agate for more details, also.
We also have Crazy Lace Agate to mix it up!
Petrified Wood
Petrified wood is a fossil. Literally, Wood turned to Stone. It formed when tree type plant material is buried by sediment and protected from decay due to oxygen and organisms. Over time, water rich in dissolved solids flows through the sediment, replacing the original plant material with silica, calcite, pyrite, or another inorganic material. The result is a fossil of the original woody material that often exhibits preserved details of the bark, wood, and cellular structures.
Petrified Forest National Park is located near Holbrook, Arizona. About 200 million years ago, a large number of trees were buried by stream sediments and volcanic ash. Over time, silica-rich ground water petrified the wood and converted it into chalcedony and gave the chalcedony vivid colors. Arizona petrified wood is some of the most colorful in the world, with brown, red, orange, yellow, white, blue, violet, & gray colors.
Australian Banded Tiger Iron
Banded Tiger Iron or Ironstone, is a sedimentary rock from the Precambrian age. It has repeated thin layers of many iron rich deposits. They are found in Australian and also Minnesota. Discussions of the sea water formed layers were rich in iron and layed down during a period of time where iron oxides were formed and layered during changes in the earths climate and oceans. Stromatolites are essentially little fossils formed by algae but there is still debate as to how all this is formed. The red bands of iron are quite pleasing to look at and seeing all of the layers that were formed by minerals and little creatures.
Malachite
Noted for its wild rings of turquoise blue and vivid greens, Malachite is a unique mineral. Technically, it is Copper Carbonate. The bands of green are opaque and they are formed into masses of round patterns. Sometimes, malachite is found with a very deep blue azurite mixed into it. Our sample had some fleshy tones in it, also. Found in Russia, Africa, Wales, Mexico and SW United States this mineral has been sculpted into many forms over the years and decorated palaces, jewelry and museums with its beauty. Often it is displayed in the rounded, botryoidal clumps or stalactite specimens, then some are sliced to show off the round patterns of greens.
Crazy Lace Agate – Mexico
Crazy Lace Agate is a variety of banded Chalcedony, a mineral of the Quartz family. It is predominantly white, with layers of creamy browns, blacks and grays. Some may include layers of yellow ochre, gold, scarlet, pink and red. Crazy lace agate, found in Chihuahua Mexico, is often brightly colored with random lacy patterns. This mineral is quite young at only 70-90 million years old. The Mexican Crazy Lace Agate is a banded micro crystalline quartz infused with aluminum and iron, thus creating some of the wilder colors found in the stone.
Brecciated Mookaite
I really like this rock when I first saw several samples in Tucson at the Gem and Mineral show. The yellow, jagged composition with the inner details in the cracks attracted me to the Brecciated Mookaite. I had to find out more and get them photographed!
Technically, this is Radiolarite sedimentary rock that is composed of the microscopic remains of radiolarians which were marine layered rocks. Radiolarites are very brittle rocks and hard to split. They break conchoidally with sharp edges. During weathering they decompose into small, rectangular pieces. The colors range from light (whitish) yellow all the way to dark (black) via red, green and brown hues. This is why they are called “ Brecciated“ and they come from the “Mooka” station in the Kennedy Ranges about 100 miles inland from the Australian coastal town of Carnarvon.
We have produced several large prints of these and made fabric for fashion that are quite intriguing to look at.
The Nature of Ammonites
Ammonites are a well known fossil with spiral form, ribbed partitions. They lived in the oceans millions of years ago. Ammonites belong to a group of predators known as cephalopods.
Read MoreNatures-Illusions Gallery open for viewing during the month of July
Natures-Illusions is a series of abstract images developed from a recent study of sliced & polished mineral specimens. The collection and portfolio is open for visitations and showings in Denver during the month of July.
We are located at 800 South Jason Street, in the upper 2nd floor area. Generally, Tuesday through Thursday is a good time to view the collection of work. Alternative appointment dates can be scheduled for your convenience as well. Please do not hesitate to contact either Dennis at (720) 480-5196 or dhalley@natures-illusions.com.
Inquiries on purchasing any piece from the Natures-Illusions series, again, please contact us either through email or telephone. The work is available for most any size commission and can be created on a wide variety of materials for commercial and residential display. Our facility has an extensive background in digital printing and offers some unique display materials to meet your consultants & designer needs.
If wanted, electronic files, print samples and printed portfolios of the portfolio are available upon request.
We hope to see you soon, please call me if we can assist.
Natures-Illusions