How to Plan an International Trip: Travel Tales and Tips : March 2020

Houston Museum district with a collection of 19 museums and galleries is always a fun place to be. We get a healthy dose of art and culture here.

The tree lined avenues welcome us with great street sculptures and bubbling fountains .

There are serene churches too! St Paul's Methodist church here...

Fountain in front of the museum...

Sam Houston statue [he led the army against Mexico and annexed Texas for USA]...

This is the entrance to the Natural Science Museum

GEM VAULT, MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE:

I'll share some of the pieces from the Gem vault first...there is lovely jewelry with diamonds and other gems

Here's a necklace with more than 150 carats of garnets and more than 3 carats of Russian-cut diamonds set in 22-carat yellow gold. The garnets graduate in color from red to orange to yellow around the 99-carat center stone...

This is an award from Russian royalty established by Peter the Great in 1704... Diamond star of the order of St. Catherine

These are our favorite pieces...dragon and butterflies studded with diamonds, rubies, sapphires... On our visits in 2019, we did not see these pieces though... hope they display them again.

SAPPHIRE STUDDED BUTTERFLY

These Amethysts are beyond amazing!

Here are some art/craft pieces made out of semi precious minerals...[this was a special exhibition, can't see these now in the permanent collection]
Details of the minerals used is in the slide below each pic...

JASPER:

AGATE:

QUARTZ:

Jaw hinge opens and closes...

QUARTZ AGAIN:

AGATE:

AGATE Chair hand rests

Agate spoons...

This is a huge Malachite Vase outside the Gem Vault...

There are 450 crystallized mineral specimens on display and we get an idea what they look like in nature before getting to the gem vault to see the cut stones set as jewelry

Quartz...trust you got that right?!

Lapis lazuli...

This huge Amethyst quartz weighing more than 850 lbs is nothing short of amazing!

Crystallized gold cluster...the four pics below

SHELLS, PEARLS...

These are shells [calcareous exoskeleton, made of calcium carbonate] enclosing and protecting the soft parts of the molluscs like snails, clams etc.

Bivalves. ..

Nacre [mother of pearl] is the inner layer of the shell of some molluscs like pearl oysters.

A pearl is formed when an irritant lodges in the mantle tissue of a mollusc.and the invaded tissue secretes a protective substance called nacre which hardens and forms a pearl in due course of time

To continue with some fav pieces, here's the Museum of Fine Arts...

INDIAN PAVILION:

Starting with revered Hindu Deities...

IVORY:

Double-sided ivory comb... side 1 here...

Side 2 here...

Lattice work lamp shade...

IVORY WHISK...

GOLD:

Hair ornament....

Necklace...

Belt...only for ladies of course

Chettinad Bride's Thaali/mangalsutra below.
Each division/community of Hindus have their own version. This particular Chettinad piece is worn only at the wedding, there is a lighter version for daily use.

The groom ties kaluthiru – the sacred thread or gold chain on the bride's neck . This gold chain contains a set of total 34 items of hand crafted gold ornaments including two pendants considered to be the most sacred. The pendants carrying the image of goddess ‘Lakshmi’ at the front side and the icons of ‘Meenakshi Sundareswarar’, ‘Rishaba’ bull in the other side
[In all south Indian Hindu communities, the married lady wears her thaali constantly for life]