| This is one of the most beautifully colored, perfectly preserved and finely detailed of the Zimbabwe Woodworthia specimens I've had the pleasure of offering! This forest can produce some truly impressive color frozen in magnificently preserved petrified wood that in many cases represent some of the finest pieces anywhere on the planet, but it's particularly uncommon to find one preserved in three distinct shades of color like this one! I wasn't sure what this log was going to yield and held off cutting it, only to discover the brilliant color pattern over the bold medullary rays highlighting the growth structure of this amazing fossil! The anticipation in finishing these has been tremendous and the high silica content ended up producing truly museum grade specimens that we're very pleased to be able to share now. It's the only one I've ever seen with the color preserving the wood this way! It's really a compelling and captivating piece of natural fossil art with a magnificent polish! The finely detailed annual rings are pierced by the bold rays to form one of the prettiest fossil formations you'll ever see in petrified wood. And the color represents some of the best of the specimens from this forest you'll find. One of my all time favorites in a wonderful collector size specimen!
This round is from a larger log that still has the stellar rays emanating through the entire round from the spike knots this wood is identified from. In the last couple of years I've started seeing some really fascinating petrified wood coming into the US at the big import shows from Zimbabwe, Africa! The wood is typically brown, tan and black coffee shades with subtle hints of green in some specimens. The best pieces are preserved in glassy agate and show exceptionally well preserved texture of the original log on the exterior. The interior reminds me of a lot of the Utah wood in detail (i.e. silica concentration varies a lot from log to log) but the best pieces show beautiful spike knots leading up to the spine bases that coat the exterior logs. You'd recognize these specimens anywhere as the logs are consistently the same colors inside and out, and the exterior is coated with an unmistakable pattern of spine scars. The wood grain itself varies in quality, but the best of these pieces show spike knots in cross section (they look like rays coming from the center of the log) and a good cut will show several of them.
This wood is quite unique and really a much more interesting fossil than most of the woodworthia we get here in the US. The green color is something you have to see in person to understand - it's not really comparable to any other petrified wood and it's difficult to get a representative photograph that really does the color justice. The wood has a reasonably high silica content so we're able to coax a nice polish out of the specimen.
This is one of the few complete rounds I was able to locate that really took a nice polish. If the timeless mystery of this piece isn't enough for you, then I'm certain the simple, natural, gemmy beauty of it will be. The colors are dark and subtle, and the wood grain is unique to this exotic species.
This round is cut from the center of a very solid log. It's really a nice piece, but what else would you expect from a business named "Sticks-in-Stones"?! We've applied all of our considerable lapidary skills to bring out a mirror finish and produce a specimen worthy of display in your own collection. You can also make out some of the spine scars on the edge of the slice.
This piece measures about 4 1/4" across the polished face and is cut about 0.43" thick. Weight is 0.46 lbs. Stands sold separately.
Sticks-in-Stones Lapidary is happily providing UPS & USPS shipping to greatly reduce shipping charges on large rock orders. We will combine all of your purchases from our shop to bring you the greatest possible value in fine Lapidary & stone collectibles!
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