Fossils, minerals and field kit from the Karoo and the Cederberg.
See what is on the benchWe sell rock. Some of it is two hundred and fifty million years old and some of it came out of a mine in the Northern Cape last winter, and we will tell you which is which before you think to ask. Everything is collected or bought under permit. Fossil material in this country belongs to the country and moves on a SAHRA permit, so a piece we cannot trace does not go on the shelf, however good it looks. Alongside the stone we sell the kit you need to look at any of it properly — a hammer that will not shear, a lens that is honestly ten times, a tray that will not scratch what you put in it. Most of what leaves here goes to school science rooms, to people who walk the koppies on a Sunday, and to a handful of collectors who have been buying from us since the shed still had no roof.
The back room is a saw, a lap wheel, a jeweller's bench and a sink that stains everything it touches. A nodule comes in whole and dull and leaves cut on one face, which is usually the only thing we do to it — polish a stone all over and you hide the bedding, and the bedding is the interesting part. Casts are poured here too, in resin off silicone moulds taken from study material and tinted a pale stone tone so nobody can pass one off as the original. Anna does the cutting, Sipho does the mounting and the trays, and whoever is nearest the door does the talking. Stand and watch if you like, as long as you accept that the saw is loud and everything in the room is wet.
Prince Albert, Western Cape. Open Tuesday to Saturday, eight until four. Tell us roughly what you are after and we will send photographs of what is actually in the tray.
