I bought my first meteorite over 57 years ago. I had already found four small irons at Meteor Crater when I was about 15. They were mixed in a box of iron shale and other rocks from the crater until just a few years ago. I did not have the knowledge as a youngster to tell them from the iron shale that was common on the slopes of the crater in the 1960s. Over the time since I was eighteen, I have created a significate collection of space rocks. I have also hunted meteorites on most of my vacation trips into the desert areas of the Western United States. I have found approximately two hundred and fifty meteorites. But I have not added any meteorites to my collection in several years except the five pieces of Holbrook found on my last hunt there. That was on a vacation to the mid-west in 2023. COVID also stopped the group of five or six of us who went out regularly from continuing to hunt. We have never put that group back together since.
I am wondering as 2025 comes to an end if I have finished collecting and now have a collection that will remain the size it is. What do I do now? That is what I have been thinking about and will share in this article.
Most of the collection is in plastic cases or plastic baggies in the drawers of plastic storage units. One cannot appreciate a collection that is out of sight in plastic. So if my collection is basically fixed now in size, what can I do with it. The obvious answer is to display much more of it than the few dozen pieces I have out now. The easiest way to do that is to take the ones in Riker cases and put them out on shelves or racks of some kind that I could make. Or buy more display cabinets and put those around the house. That would allow me to also display the hundreds that are not in Riker cases.
Riker cases are great for slices and small specimens, but they do not work at all for thicker chunkier whole specimens. Riker cases do give a uniformity and consistency to the look of a display. Which is great in a dealer’s room at Tucson. I like a balance between Riker cases and specimens of all sizes mixed together. This makes a good argument for corner and wall display cabinets, perhaps even ones with lighting. Also the meteorites in cabinets would be a bit more secure, as some I don’t wanted handled excessively.
The little bit of downside is that I will have to make ID cards for all the meteorites once they are out of their alphabetically stored drawers. That is a lot of computer and printing time. But I will have to do it for the beauty of the display cabinets and shelves. The Rikers are all labeled on the backs.
I have ten display boxes that hold 36 membrane cases each. They are one inch by one inch and much of the very small specimen part of the collection are in those. They are organized by type mostly. Except for the Holbrooks that are in membrane trays of their own. There are a large number of one inch gem jar containers also trays of single meteorite falls, such as Franconia irons. These can stand on aisles as they do now they are all set.
I will not be displaying very many of the hundreds of NWA unclassified meteorites I have accumulated. But there are a few of those that are special. It might even be time to start sending more of those away to be classified. I enjoy that process as any regular reader of my articles knows. But there are plenty of classified and historical meteorites to put on display in cabinets. I already have some really big pieces on display; they rest on pads currently on furniture. But It has long been my goal to make iron or other metal displays stands for them. Maybe that is a direction I can go with the larger meteorites in the collection. Instead of buying more stones to be boxed away, make stands for ones I have. Over the decades I created many wood and metal stands for smaller meteorites. But have left some of the larger ones put away.
There is also the less pleasant thought that it might be getting close to the time that I sale some of my meteorites. Or even sale a portion of the collection as a chunk in an auction or to a dealer. There are consignment opportunities too. But I am not there yet. I feel sometimes that I am like Smaug the Dragon. Sitting on my collection knowing every piece even if I have not seen it in years. I know it is there. Which makes me recall that I mentioned in a recent article missing and searching for a wonderful slice of Henbury that I bought thirty years ago. Well I am happy to say that I located it with some other Items I removed from a display case made up for a public event. I knew I had them still but did not know where any of the meteorites were put. So like Smaug I relentlessly hunted until I found them. I had bound a book for my daughter in purple Moroccan goatskin. When I cleared the worktable, I put everything including the meteorites emptied from the public display case into one box.
If I sold the specimens now, I would feel like I had lost them. Maybe in the future I can let them go.
I am increasingly devoting my time to other interests. My studio has many workstations for different art forms I create in.
I have mentioned once or twice during the twenty odd years that Meteorite Times has been running that I am also a potter, a painter, stone and wood carver, stained glass maker and silversmith. I have not mentioned that I also hunt, collect, and prepare fossils. I am more interested currently in travelling out and hunting trilobites and other fossils. Some can be found in rocks not far from home. There is one advantage to fossil hunting you almost always come home with a box of fossils. Instead of hunting for days and not finding a single meteorite. Though I usually find a meteorite in two or three day trips, occasionally I don’t. I hunt often in obscure locations where just a few stones of have been found. It is challenging but the rewards are often sweeter.
On my recent vacation to Idaho I stopped at three fossil locations and got a half a car load of trilobites and fish fossils. I have worked my way through the trilobite. Many were covered by rock that had to be careful removed with tools to expose the whole little bug.
Mondays and Thursdays I teach silversmithing to anyone at the Gem and Mineral Society workshop who wants to set something they have created. I have a 14 inch potter’s wheel just waiting for clay to be thrown on it. And there is a big white tub with a lid that contains everything needed to do oil paintings. I sure don’t lack hobbies. Some I need to work with regularly to keep my creative juices flowing. I have spots on my walls craving a painting to fill them. And there are antique clocks still unrestored or repaired.
As you can see, I stay pretty busy during the daytime and also do astrophotography from my observatory at night. Not many moments go wasted. Have another book almost finished of short stories. That will be my twelfth book published. Meteorites have been a lifelong fascination and they still are. But amassing more is not where I am now. My heart lies with doing something fun with the collection.
I am content with the number of space rocks I have. But now I want to get them out and have them around me. So some woodworking is coming to make shelves and stands and displays. That’s OK, I love woodworking too as all my workbenches, tool stands, and grandfather clock case can testify to.
One good thing I can say about my tough childhood is that I learned a great many skills from my father. The difficulties living with him and the abuse caused me to withdraw and hide in artistic areas of every kind. My work has not always been good but with every effort I learned and attempted more. I have long suffered from artist envy. I see work done by other artists and it drives me to try something new or a new technique. I feel really good about doing this with the meteorites. I think there are years of fun in the creation of a collection on display. Using the collection I already have, instead of building a bigger collection to never be seen.
I would like to buy the occasional unclassified meteorite with my friend Jason and get it classified. Maybe one or two a year as we have often done. I love that experience and those meteorites always go on display anyway.
I am already doing ceramic projects with the fossils I brought back from a trip a month ago. I am not actually using the fossils themselves but modeling pieces after them. It took me almost two weeks to finish prepping just the trilobites. I have not gotten to the fish yet. When can I pull myself away and get to the meteorites? That is anyone’s guess. But I want to get going on them soon. Right now the clay is calling me and I must throw, roll, punch and fold it. And I must continue getting the meteorites out to see who wins the selection process to get displayed. Here is a cutie that desires to be seen and enjoyed. Hundreds have painted numbers on them like this one. It is a code for my catalogue telling when they were bought and how much they weigh.
Have fun with your collections and hobbies.
