I have always loved collecting rocks and fossils.  This was a lot easier when I lived in the Southwest.  Here in the northern part of Puget Sound, close to the Canadian border, shells, ferns, sea creatures and their discarded shell home ares plentiful, but aside from some fern fossils, have not seen many fossils at all.

This year, I took some time to attend the gem and mineral shows in Tucson.  So many treasures.  The walrus fossil pieces here are some of my favorites. They were gathered in Alaska by a family from Seattle,  I realized while I was there, that the cut and polished stones really don't appeal to me very much.  One of the coolest places we visited was the miner's show, where a bunch of "rock hounders" were showing their goods.  Great stories about where the stones were found, I learned a lot from hanging out there.
I haven't decided what do with these yet..any ideas?

This is just the beginning for this bead.  After annealing overnight in my kiln, I will work it into a most interesting shard on a flat lap lapidary grinder.  Will post the resulting bead when done!

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