It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see the relationship between this stone and it's cousin from the same location - it shows the same amazing landscape like hills in the lightest colored region on the side. This stone appears to have been painted by an artist - but it's 100% natural and not a bit of that pattern or color has been added to the stone!! This is a really nice and incredibly colorful sculpture cut from a relatively newly discovered stone called Desert Picture Jasper from Madagascar. The stone itself is one of the most impressive and darkest colored examples of this gorgeous and beautifully figured gemstone I've seen yet. The shades in this stone blend well in with the contemporary earth based colors popular in recent interior decor. It has all of the colors and swirling patterns that make this gemstone so highly prized, and the natural sculpture it has been fashioned into is flawlessly polished over the entire viewing surface. It looks great from any angle, including top down, and the flat cut base allows it to be easily positioned for optimal viewing on any flat surface. This fabulous stone is a happy by-product from one of my great petrified wood adventures, but a very welcome one to say the least! Read on the learn more!
This is a very impressive, nice sized display specimen of Desert Picture Jasper. I spotted this material in the stone markets of Antananarivo last year and was really amazed and the seemingly endless variety of colors and patterns this colorful stone could produce. I'd started to see a few pieces here and there (it's sometimes called polychrome jasper) in the year or two prior to my trip, but this was the first time I'd seen such high quality, larger pieces that really gave a feel for this relative newcomer's potential. I was there to buy petrified logs, but having an appreciation for high quality agates and jaspers I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to engage the local craftsmen about their work. Madagascar is an interesting country with a very loose, almost ad-hoc distribution system and trying to find the source of anything is almost impossible. Madagascar is the same country that brought us the now largely extinct Ocean Jasper. It was incredibly popular while it lasted, and even more so now that it is dug out. I don't have any idea how long this material will be on the market either, but I knew enough from previous experiences that when a beautiful stone makes it into the decorative gemstone market - don't wait too long to act or you could well be surprised how quickly it is here, and then gone! I was fortunate to finally find someone that had some hand worked pieces that were very highly polished with a truly flawless finish. The prices were higher than some of the lesser quality finished stones, but the quality more than made up the difference for me - and I'm confident you'll see why when you examine this one in person! The colors flow through this stone like a cross between our own domestic northwest picture jaspers and wonder stone, and this stone exhibits the best colors of both of those stone varieties. This is hard stone that took an excellent polish, and the craftsman that polished it used the natural contour of the stone to bring this sculpture to life. It's an absolutely beautiful natural work of art, prepared as it should be with a flawless finish and an appealing natural form.
This piece was prepared with a flat cut base to provide a naturally standing specimen, intended for a mantle, table, desk or bookshelf. It's a very impressive sculpture with an amazing amount of color. Something sure to catch eyes and inspire questions. Can the polish really make that much difference in the stone? Absolutely! Most of the stones we sell are collected for their natural beauty, but few people ever get to see the materials we work with in their full glory because most dealers either don't know how to produce a quality, mirror perfect finish on a stone, or they can't be bothered to spend the extra time or money required and settle for a "good enough" commercial grade finish. The extra care and effort we put into our pieces is something our customers can truly appreciate and we hope to count you among them!
This nice specimen stands just under 7" tall and weighs an impressive 2.76 lbs!! This stone is often cut into beads and other jewelry. Now you can appreciate it in its full sized, natural glory!!
A nice, unique naturally wonderful stone collectible exclusively from Sticks-in-Stones Lapidary.