Post by Sabre52 on Mar 20, 2011 10:17:01 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Well, went down to the big show at San Antonio yesterday. Excellent show as usual plus I got to visit with one of my agate and pet wood collecting heroes, Matt Dillon. Matt is as nice as he is knowledgeable and his booth is for me, always a treasure trove. It's also always cool to see in person, some of his fantastic finds he posts on his flickr photostream. I especially loved his trademark Texas Black Sable Palm Wood cabs. One of the dealers has an exclusive on that stuff. That stuff is freaking awesome!
In addition, this club show has the most outrageous silent auction you can imagine with literally a couple of hundred items each cycle. So many that the line to pay after each cycle takes you about twenty minutes to transit but well worth the trouble. Some of the items up for auction were crates of agate and wood up to a hundred pounds or so. I was sorely tempted as a couple of crates were full of Woodward flower garden and Rio Grande stuff but most were too big for my saw so I got only 30# or so of small Rio Grandes that were going up in five pound bags. Anyway, here are pics of a few of the treasures that found their way from his collection into mine and my silent auction wins. *S*....Mel
Rio Grande Red Moss slab:
Shrinkwood slab from east Texas:
Rough Palm wood. I know this looks dark but often inside, these are awesome palm and very solid too. Most all wood from this area has that black patina on the exterior. Look how red the one is ! Wow!
Nice highly agatized 8" long piece of palm:
More palm: The white one had red inside and the one on the right has a very transparent agate base:
Still more palm. Piece on left is another red one:
A nice big very silicified hunk of very deep golden palm:
My favorite and the most expensive, a big saw hunk of an unidentified and very unusual shrinkwood. I suspect this is pretty exotic wood and maybe some kind of palm or fern type stuff but I don't know and neither did Matt. So it's just darn pretty shrinkwood.
And finally, my small pile of small Rio Grande agate and wood from the silent auction. Much of this will go into the tumbler for the kiddies.
In addition, this club show has the most outrageous silent auction you can imagine with literally a couple of hundred items each cycle. So many that the line to pay after each cycle takes you about twenty minutes to transit but well worth the trouble. Some of the items up for auction were crates of agate and wood up to a hundred pounds or so. I was sorely tempted as a couple of crates were full of Woodward flower garden and Rio Grande stuff but most were too big for my saw so I got only 30# or so of small Rio Grandes that were going up in five pound bags. Anyway, here are pics of a few of the treasures that found their way from his collection into mine and my silent auction wins. *S*....Mel
Rio Grande Red Moss slab:
Shrinkwood slab from east Texas:
Rough Palm wood. I know this looks dark but often inside, these are awesome palm and very solid too. Most all wood from this area has that black patina on the exterior. Look how red the one is ! Wow!
Nice highly agatized 8" long piece of palm:
More palm: The white one had red inside and the one on the right has a very transparent agate base:
Still more palm. Piece on left is another red one:
A nice big very silicified hunk of very deep golden palm:
My favorite and the most expensive, a big saw hunk of an unidentified and very unusual shrinkwood. I suspect this is pretty exotic wood and maybe some kind of palm or fern type stuff but I don't know and neither did Matt. So it's just darn pretty shrinkwood.
And finally, my small pile of small Rio Grande agate and wood from the silent auction. Much of this will go into the tumbler for the kiddies.