Don Windeler's Photo Gallery
6PE-M17Jadeite Na(Al,Fe3+)Si2O6
Dimensions: 25 cm x 13 cm x 10 cm
Cut and polished face of a large jadeite cobble, taken in a jade jewelry store in Guangzhou, China. Note that the two white spots on the lower edge of the specimen are specular reflections of overhead lighting that I have not edited out.
I am generally not a big polished rock person -- aside from some diversions into agates, inspired by my wife -- but found this polished jadeite cobble to be really interesting. Love the mixed purple, green and white. I would have purchased this to bring home, but I'm still paying for a kid in college and this would cover a semester. (Actually, several semesters...)
Size approximate, as I measured with my hands and converted at home.
Don Windeler photo, taken March 2024.
GCC-YQ0Jadeite Na(Al,Fe3+)Si2O6
Dimensions: 45 cm x 30 cm x 25 cm
Small boulder of brecciated jadeite, taken in a jade jewelry shop in Guangzhou, China.
This shop had a boulder of jadeite on display in the front window. I found it interesting because of the brecciated texture, with angular clasts of green and purple jade within a matrix of lighter colored, slightly coarser jadeite. There is a spot slightly up and left from center where the green jade was polished and buffed to check the color and quality.
The red marker annotations are from the auction bid process. (Note following commentary is from discussion my wife had in Chinese with the store owner and may have lost some detail.) At auction, the piece is labeled and buyers have to decide whether to buy the rough based on what they can see. He acquired this piece at a price he found acceptable, then decided (test cuts not shown?) he would rather show the full piece than cut it up for possible use in jewelry. I just like breccias and found the clasts of jewelry-grade colored material in matrix to be fascinating.
Measurements approximate. I used my hands and referenced a ruler later.
Don Windeler photo, March 2024. Not my rock, unfortunately.
"Checkerboard" pavement in limestone, Spittal Pond Nature Reserve
Spittal Pond Nature Reserve has a variety of trails that loop around a brackish lagoon that hosts a variety of wetland critters. Some of the trails between the pond and ocean cross some interesting geologic formations, including this one known as "the Checkerboard" -- a fractured limestone pavement with tesselated patterns. There is also Jeffrey's Hole, a natural cave that hid an escaped slave for over a month.
This picture was taken in June 2023 when we visited. Interesting spot to check out, especially with all the tiny frogs hopping along the ground and the great ocean views, but we should have brought more water -- pretty hot & steamy for an afternoon hike at that time of the year!
92W-8XFCopper Cu
Dimensions: 6.0 cm x 1.0 cm x 0.3 cm
Fine loose crystallized grouping of dendritic native copper without matrix, looking like a pair of fern fronds curving out symmetrically. Label indicates it was found in the 4100 level.
Ex-Sam Elbin collection. This piece was illustrated in the 2013 Mineralogical Record "Mineral Collections of the Crystal Gazers & Friends" supplement, p. 131.
Publication in the MR supplement ultimately resulted in me learning more about the specimen's provenance. Mark Hay, who worked at the Magma Mine as a geologist, contacted me and provided these additional comments (edited for brevity):
"I collected it in the summer of 1980 from an exploration tunnel driven to intersect the Magma Vein and evaluate copper potential at depth. The tunnel or drift was named '106 Drift North'. It was driven the prior year and was essentially abandoned when I dug these. Being a geologist, I had pretty much run of the entire mine, so if I had some down time I had a list of places I could go to search for specimens. This was the only one where I could get native copper and crystallized to boot. ... Sam Elbin was a friend that I introduced to minerals. That piece caught his eye and he used to pester me about it. One day I gave in and let him have it. I was reluctant to let it go but I had three of them."
Don Windeler collection, acquired 2011 from Dan Weinrich. Photo by and posted with permission of Jeff Scovil, to whom my thanks are extended. Thank you Mark, as well, both for the additional info and for releasing this piece "into the wild" -- it's one of my favorite Arizona coppers!
Jeff Scovil Photo Reference: 2013-01-0214
Commercial copyright, not to be reproduced without permission.
61D-V1NPyrite FeS2
Dimensions: 1.8 cm x 1.3 cm x 1.3 cm
Largest Crystal Size: 0.5 cm
An aesthetically-trimmed thumbnail with a lone 0.5 cm pyrite crystal perched on a bit of off-white limestone. The pyrite is a pyritohedron that shows some evidence of interpenetrant twinning. The matrix is dusted with some tiny mm-scale pyrites.
Previous owner label just said "Upper Bergland, Germany." See discussion of locality and attribution to Lippe in https://www.mindat.org/mesg-624958.html
Don Windeler collection, acquired 2023 from Rick Kennedy (Earth's Treasures) from the Dennis Ewell collection.
UKF-C51Calcite CaCO3
Dimensions: 7.0 cm x 6.0 cm x 3.3 cm
Rounded cluster of transparent to translucent, tan calcite rhombohedra. Decent piece, but a bit dinged up around the edges where it was extracted from a larger mass.
Don Windeler collection, acquired 1982 from M.J. Ridding in Banff, Alberta. In the spectrum of Tsumeb calcites, this is a relatively average one but holds a special place in my collection. My family went on a vacation through the Canadian Rockies when I was a teen in high school and I was thrilled to run into an upscale mineral shop when we went through Banff. I couldn't afford much of anything there, but after rummaging through many drawers I blew my souvenir budget on this and a Chilean atacamite. One of the best specimens I owned for several years. As an adult my family went back through Banff some 25 years later and (of course) the Ridding rock shop had disappeared into history.
DWW-8JWCopper Cu , Cuprite Cu2O
Dimensions: 9 cm x 6 cm x 4 cm
Deep red and purplish cuprite coatings on large copper crystals. Bulky piece that looks like recent specimens from Mashamba West (cf https://www.mindat.org/photo-1023792.html ), but older provenance rules this out.
Don Windeler collection, acquired 2022 from Armin Scholer (e-shop mineralien). Armin acquired the piece out of the Gerd Tremmel collection (Gerdtremmelite/Tsumeb); Tremmel bought the specimen in 1976 from Bartelke (Bartelkeite/Tsumeb).
NJU-L8NAragonite (Var: Lead-bearing Aragonite) (Ca,Pb)CO3
Dimensions: 6.8 cm x 5.4 cm x 2.4 cm
An unusually fine example of uncommon plumboan aragonite crystals, a variety known as tarnowitzite. The nearly 7 cm wide plate of off-white color crystals is without damage. Largest single crystal measures 1.8 cm wide.
Locality on label as purchased was "Silesian Voivodeship, Poland," but MinDat reviewer rejected as not found at this locality and more appropriate from Tsumeb. I don't disagree, as this is very close to a Tsumeb tarnowitzite with copper that's also in my collection.
Don Windeler collection, acquired 2021 from California Mineral Connection. Ex. Dr. Abraham Feinberg Collection circa 1970's-1990's.
VT3-0LFCalcite CaCO3
Dimensions: 3.5 cm x 2.4 cm x 2.2 cm
Tiny, disc-like masses of cream-colored calcite replacing (or at least epimorphing) a hexagonal crystal of aragonite. The broken underside of the crystal shows a boundary against granular, whiter carbonate that could be either calcite or aragonite and the center is partly hollow.
Don Windeler collection, acquired 2022 from Marcus Origlieri / Mineral Zone.
0CV-DFPCalcite CaCO3 , Copper Cu
Dimensions: 3.0 cm x 2.0 cm x 1.8 cm
Nice Michigan classic with several glassy translucent colorless calcite crystals in a cluster with crystallized native copper. Very slight chipping present, this still in very good condition and shows some local color in calcite from the included copper. Complete all around.
Don Windeler collection, acquired 2021 from Dan Weinrich. Ex-Martin Jensen. Previous label notes that at one time this was part of the collection of Samuel Brady at the Mackay School of Mines in Reno, Nevada, traded from Tom Lugaski on 22 Dec 1989. The piece was likely collected pre-1900.
