My Store

Who:

My Name is Tommy  Armstrong. I have been a mineral collector, paint chemist, paint store manager, water and  wastewater treatment Superintendant and a photograher. I went to school at UNC Chapel Hill and studied geology andand thern transferred to North Carolina State School of Design and studied landscape architecture. Dropped out, got married, had kids, and then returned to get a degree in Multi-Disciplinary Studies with an emphasis on design. 

What

Digital photography made it possible to really photo mineral specimens economically. It also allowed focus stacking so that one could achieve (if one wanted to) infinite depth of field.  On retirement, I made it one of my goals (one of few that have sustained) to photograph my minerals with the idea of creating landscapes, patterns, and creatures out of the rock and just interesting or pretty pitchers. I did a series of pigments dispersing in paint at the paint store and a series of abstract photos at the waste water treatment plant. And there are a smattering of those in this store, but main emphasis now is on minerals as they are ongoing. 

All designs in this shop, with a couple of exceptions were derived or more accurately "found" or "create" in my mineral specimens. So really every thing is "natural" :) .A good mineral specimen can be appreciated for years if they resonate with the viewer. For first of all they are all unique-none exactly like another-at least the ones I pick out. Many are afordable as a number of the designs on this site are from specimens that cost less than $10. They are the inorganic world's art. The most $500 but the price of fine minerals has skyrocked since the interenet. And many go for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Why

Many of the abstracty photos I have taken throughout my life have to me always have begged to be made into tiles or fabric patterns or rugs or whatever and with POD, can actually get it done. I print all my photos and enjoy them, but quite honestly, no one really would buy a print to hang on the wall--but to me they sure do make for some good clothing and accesory patterns. And they are damned fun to create as really never can visualize what they will come out until they come out. It is also a good way to connect with my paint chemist days as pretty much all my minerals are ones that have been used in paint.