Lapidary bench:
petrified wood
Some trillion shaped petrified wood cabs I'm working on this week. Still a bit of work to go. I love working with this material ❤️ it gets such a nice shine and shows the pattern of the old wood beautifully.
Petrified wood, fossilized wood, or agatized wood is the result of mineral replacement. Basically, a tree is preserved (in tar, volcanic ash, even mud). As the organic matter decomposes, it is replaced by minerals brought in through water. Over centuries and millennia, the wood is replaced with stone. The final product includes fantastic detail. The colours depend on the minerals present, some petrified wood is very colourful. My favourite however is the black and tan colours often caused by volcanic ash.
I love that parts of a tree are perfectly preserved through the ages. The amount of time that has passed since it was a real living tree I can't even imagine. But here it sits on my bench like its traveled through time. It's like magic, but better because it's SCIENCE! Fossils are just neat.
