Lapidary Art Rocks!

 Oak Brook, IL

Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art

Today we drove to Oak Brook to the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art.  Donna read about it in the Chicago Newspaper and we found out Wednesday is free day.  We figured if it was packed we would just leave.  Turns out it wasn't crowded at all so we stayed and enjoyed the works.  They had a huge collection and some of them seemed like they would be VERY expensive.  

The entrance had large stones out front.  The Petrified Wood from Arizona was really cool.

This photo of Joseph Lizzadro

was turned into a "rock by numbers"

and then rocked!  That is, small pieces of rocks were used as a mosaic to recreate the image.  I really thought it was a photo of the mosaic but it was the mosaic itself.

I should start a blog called "Donna Looking At Stuff"

This is a single piece of Jade (except the base) and the artist used the different colors of the jade to decide what to carve.  It's very impressive.   

This is an 18 carrot gold castle on an agate base with cut diamonds for the windows so they would sparkle.  

This is another mosaic 

You can see the individual pieces when you look close up.  Donna and I thought there should be a magnifying glass.

This is my cool "looking at art" stance.  

Eeeeeek!

Cameo Bowl

They also had cool dioramas with Lapidary Art in them.  These dioramas were put together with children in mind.  I guess that's why we liked them!

Me and a Woodpecker

This is carved from coral 

Ghost -  Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio 2010

Snake Master -  Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio 2010

The Kvass Seller - I. Borovikov

This is a photograph.  At first I thought it was an action figure in a smallish geode but it's a scientist amongst giant selenite crystal formations in a cave in Mexico. 

Emporium Logan Square

After getting back and having some food I went over to another local arcade to play some pinball.  The Emporium is a few blocks away and has a selection of mostly older machines as well as arcade machines.  The games cost less and are half price on Tuesdays (today is Wednesday).  It's a cool space.  I also played at an Emporium in New Orleans.  I assume it is the same chain.

Break Shot was really fun.  The backglass is a product of its time (actually it is later than I thought.  It was built in 1996).

We also ran an errand to Super H-Mart today to pick up things for some meals.  It didn't seem as Super as I expected.  It was only Super-ish IMHO.

That is it for today.  If you missed Skating The Ribbon check it out.  We skated the skating ribbon.