Pete Tillman
Kitchen tilework, Tucson house
When it was new. Characteristically, we did the work a few months before selling the place. Mexican bean pot was my Mom's, 1950s? Talavera tiles, I think from the dealer in Santa Fe. Great deep-blue background. I tried to pick that up with the blue grout -- and also keep it from getting stained so easily, the bane of Talavera countertops.
Copper mineral specimens are African Copper Belt (Katanga, I think). The brochantite (rear right), which is on a carbonized log, may also be African, but I don't remenber, and I don't know where it is. The 3 botryoidal malachites are in front of me, and are pretty great. The best, at lower right, is particularly velvety and is hollow
I'm pretty sure I bought all of these at the Tucson Show, from a Congolese guy who showed up every year with steel drums of specimens. He didn't pack them very well. But you could find nearly ding-free beauties if you got there early.
Kitchen tilework, Tucson house
When it was new. Characteristically, we did the work a few months before selling the place. Mexican bean pot was my Mom's, 1950s? Talavera tiles, I think from the dealer in Santa Fe. Great deep-blue background. I tried to pick that up with the blue grout -- and also keep it from getting stained so easily, the bane of Talavera countertops.
Copper mineral specimens are African Copper Belt (Katanga, I think). The brochantite (rear right), which is on a carbonized log, may also be African, but I don't remenber, and I don't know where it is. The 3 botryoidal malachites are in front of me, and are pretty great. The best, at lower right, is particularly velvety and is hollow
I'm pretty sure I bought all of these at the Tucson Show, from a Congolese guy who showed up every year with steel drums of specimens. He didn't pack them very well. But you could find nearly ding-free beauties if you got there early.