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[Kerrismama]

Hi guys! I live in Graham, WA; pierce county area. I'm trying to find a local artist who can cab a cool piece of petrified wood for me. I am absolutely dying to make this into a pendant, but I definitely would not be comfortable with trying it myself. I love it too much, I don't want to ruin it. Lol. Also, any suggestions or tips on what I should be looking for in artist would be appreciated. I'm including some pics of it wet and dry. Thanks!

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[55fossil]

   It is a beautiful piece of wood.  Since it appears to be face cut with a natural back this presents problems for the lapidary. If you just have the flat face polished and a little bit of trimming on the edges I can see a wire wrap or nice freeform pendant without losing much of the stone. If a lapidary were to trim that piece up and try to do a domed cabochon you could lose a lot of the beauty in the stone. As it is a large piece there may be enough material to do a nice round or oval cabochon from the center of it.
   For reference you could draw a circle around all the good areas that would leave a 5mm slab with no chipped out areas. Then see if there is a beautiful area looking back at you for your cabochon. Looks like a possibility.  good luck

[irockhound]

Not nearby by any stretch of the imagination but after working a lot of uneven irregular shapes like horse canyon seam and Nipomo Sagenite I have no problem finding ways to work with rough like this.  I figured I would throw an idea down for you to use and I think you should have no problem cabbing it.  Since it looks like the center color goes through the wood and that the best color is on the top side of the piece as you would grind it, it should turn out very nice.  I guess the big question is what shape or size are you looking for or do you find pleasing?  I always take the rough and sketch the design on it and show it to the person or sketch with them to make sure it is what they want.  Can't tell you how frustrating it is to have just make something pretty.  Okay what do you find pretty? and it is always a battle to get the image they have in their mind.

ps hard to tell from the image but sometimes that color is surface thin (2nd) pic left to right.  Your 1st pic I can see the color is in the stone. 2nd pic not totally sure.  You may want to grind a little on it to see if it is surface color.  Reason I question it is that the area just to the left of the color is flaked downward into the stone and the color doesn't appear there.  If the color is only on the flatter side of your stone it would have to change the concept and the red area in pic 2 would have to be an ovalish bottom and cab to the smaller color on the other side and pic one would be the top of the cab - still workable.

[Kerrismama]

I really like the front flat side the best. The back is cool, but I love the sort of eye look to the front of it. Also, it's hard to capture in a picture but the flat side has bits of flash throughout from the pyrite. I would like to keep as much of it as possible, because I also love the wood grain pattern. Perhaps the previous poster is right, that I should just slab it. I am a wire artisan, so a can wrap any shape. However, I have this dream of having a good lapidary artist do something really cool with it so I can make an artistic collaborative type piece. I'm still just learning in the lapidary arts. I really do not have the ability to do it myself. Someday!

Not nearby by any stretch of the imagination but after working a lot of uneven irregular shapes like horse canyon seam and Nipomo Sagenite I have no problem finding ways to work with rough like this.  I figured I would throw an idea down for you to use and I think you should have no problem cabbing it.  Since it looks like the center color goes through the wood and that the best color is on the top side of the piece as you would grind it, it should turn out very nice.  I guess the big question is what shape or size are you looking for or do you find pleasing?  I always take the rough and sketch the design on it and show it to the person or sketch with them to make sure it is what they want.  Can't tell you how frustrating it is to have just make something pretty.  Okay what do you find pretty? and it is always a battle to get the image they have in their mind.

ps hard to tell from the image but sometimes that color is surface thin (2nd) pic left to right.  Your 1st pic I can see the color is in the stone. 2nd pic not totally sure.  You may want to grind a little on it to see if it is surface color.  Reason I question it is that the area just to the left of the color is flaked downward into the stone and the color doesn't appear there.  If the color is only on the flatter side of your stone it would have to change the concept and the red area in pic 2 would have to be an ovalish bottom and cab to the smaller color on the other side and pic one would be the top of the cab - still workable.

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