Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ironstone's 13th Annual Spring Obsession Art Show, Competition & Sale is looking to be one of the best exhibits on record. Open Division entries are arriving daily from throughout the United States. Theme Division Accepted Originals are arriving this weekend. Excited is not a powerful enough term to describe how I feel!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Benitoite Gem Display


Collector Brett Keller works on his display of Benitoite for Ironstone's Heritage Museum.  Scheduled to be on display through March 7th., this collection of rare and unique Benitoite gems and crystalls is beautiful.  The rich blue hues found in these formations are breath taking.

Brett has won numerous awards with this display and has qualified for the National Show later this year.  He hopes to take home another prize for this beautiful collection. 

Come see it and cheer Brett on.  If you aren't sure what Benitoite is, lets start with the "official Gemstone of California".  And what a more appropriate place for this display than next to the "official Mineral of California"... GOLD! and the 44tlb specimen!

Gem quality Benitoite is found in only one mine in the world approximately 20 miles north of Colinga, CA. in an area now called the Clear Creek Recreational Area.  It was first discovered here in 1907 by James Marshall Couch.  These first blue crystals were thought to be Sapphire or Spinel, but their softness, with a Mohs hardness of only 6.5 made them much too soft for either of those stones.  It was University of California at Berkeley Professor George Louderbach who first identified this gem as a new mineral and named it Benitoite due to its origin in the headwaters of the San Benito River. 

Considered one of the ten rarest gemstones in the world, Benitoite is enormously popular among mineral collectors for its beauty and rarity.  With the mine now closed and mosted played out, this collection is even more rare and most certainly worth a visit to see for yourself.  Slide show coming soon.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

CALL TO ARTISTS

Call to Artists!

Entries still being accepted for Ironstone Vineyard's 13th Annual Spring Obsession Art Show & Sale Open Division

OPEN DIVISION       Entries due for Open Division February 5th, 2010.
                                             Awards   1st prize $1000.00 / 2nd. prize $500.00 / 3rd. prize $250.00

2-D original art any subject matter, any media.

Prospectus outlines the rules and procedures.
Download prospectus at http://www.ironstonevineyards.com/ or send a self addressed stamped envelope to:
Ironstone Spring Obsession Art
1894 Six Mile Road
Murphys, CA 95247

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

As Seen on TV!  The release of Daniel D'Agostini & Molly Chappellet's new coffee table book, "Into the Earth: A Wine Cave Renaissance".  This book is a must see.  My first reaction was "Wow!"  This is one big and beautiful book. If you can get past the stunning photography, you realize this book is a history of the develpment of the great aging caves of the wine industry.  This is also a very heartfelt and special project for Daniel D'Agostini.  Daniel is credited with taking most of the spectacular photos in this rather large book.  The Kautz Family of Ironstone Vineyards and the D'Agostini family have a great bond tied to the rich history of California's gold rush.  D'Agostini winery is credited with being one of the first commercial wineries developed during the actual gold rush.  During the days, wine was fermented in large redwood barrels. Along comes Mr. John Kautz building a tribute to the Mining Era with Ironstone Vineyards to procure several of those antique barrels and put them to use as the entry doors to Ironstone Vineyards very own aging caverns as well as the paneling in the spectacular tasting room.

These in themselves are a must see, but, back to the book.  We have the book for sale here in the Heritage Museum at Ironstone. Don't take my word for it, come see for yourself, it is a beautiful history of a significant development in California's wine industry and a must have for all you wine lovers.