Over the last few years I have been on a mission to customise my
pocket watch, make it personal and precious to me. I wanted to have something
attached to the T-bar itself but I just couldn’t find anything that I liked, so
I decided to create something that represented several factors that interest
me… One of my “all time” favourite movies is Jurassic Park, a life
long fan of dinosaurs I was easily swept along with the ‘dino-mania’ that struck
the United Kingdom in the summer of 1993. One of the enduring images of that
film (for me) was that of a fossilised insect in amber. The insect that once fed
off the blood of dinosaur was the vital component needed by the scientist of
Jurassic Park in acquiring “Dino DNA”. With that in mind, along with my
continued interest in natural science and history I decided that I would like a
piece of amber that contained a fossilised insect attached to my pocket watch…
At first glance it might seem to be a piece Citrine but it would in fact be much
more! 
Now, a piece of amber containing a perfectly preserved
culicidae insect from around 65 million years ago would be extremely costly and
not an ideal/practical item to have hanging on a watch chain that is in every
day use… So I opted instead for a piece of amber dating from Eocene/ Oligocene
era (around 33 million years ago) Admittedly there where no dinosaurs around at
that time, however an insect that lived amongst early ‘prototypes’ of the
animals we now know was still equally exciting! Realising
that locating a genuine piece of fossilised amber on the Internet could be
tricky I contacted someone I trusted, Ian Barrett at Jurassic Jewellery who was only too
happy to help me with my request. So much so that he tracked down several
examples for me to choose from. Once I (finally) settled on one I liked he
attached a link to it and had it posted out to me the very next day. It’s
now on my watch and I adore it. Being a small piece of amber I was concerned
that the insect might not be entirely visible but this is not the case. Hold it
to the light and you see a beautify-complete fungus gnat that once existed in a
time of 8-ft flightless birds and horses that averaged 14-inches!
Now, a piece of amber containing a perfectly preserved
culicidae insect from around 65 million years ago would be extremely costly and
not an ideal/practical item to have hanging on a watch chain that is in every
day use… So I opted instead for a piece of amber dating from Eocene/ Oligocene
era (around 33 million years ago) Admittedly there where no dinosaurs around at
that time, however an insect that lived amongst early ‘prototypes’ of the
animals we now know was still equally exciting! Realising
that locating a genuine piece of fossilised amber on the Internet could be
tricky I contacted someone I trusted, Ian Barrett at Jurassic Jewellery who was only too
happy to help me with my request. So much so that he tracked down several
examples for me to choose from. Once I (finally) settled on one I liked he
attached a link to it and had it posted out to me the very next day. It’s
now on my watch and I adore it. Being a small piece of amber I was concerned
that the insect might not be entirely visible but this is not the case. Hold it
to the light and you see a beautify-complete fungus gnat that once existed in a
time of 8-ft flightless birds and horses that averaged 14-inches!Check out Jurassic Jewellery’s web site and tell them Arfon sent you!
© Arfon Jones 2012. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.
Ta for the link to Jurassic Jewellery, Arfon.
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome Mim! Remember to tell him who sent you! ;)
ReplyDelete