[slothrop]

Found this petrified mushroom---or what I believe to be a petrified mushroom---at my mom's house today. Thought it might be kinda cool to try to do some kind of root over petrified mushroom deal, but I'm not sure if it's possible...

While we're on this topic, would it be possible to use petrified wood as well?

Let me know what you think ;-D

Here's a picture of what I believe to be a petrified mushroom:

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[jkl]

As a once-upon-a-time geology major, petrified mushrooms seem unlikely for some reason. It was the hard parts that petrified, and there are no hard parts in a 'shroom. Is it heavy? Hard? Where did you find it? Embedded in rock?

No reason why you couldn't use it, but you couldn't claim a naturalistic composition. Petrified wood is another matter entirely. I'm sure it has been used many times.

[slothrop]

jkl, on 06 November 2009 - 06:31 PM, said:

As a once-upon-a-time geology major, petrified mushrooms seem unlikely for some reason. It was the hard parts that petrified, and there are no hard parts in a 'shroom. Is it heavy? Hard? Where did you find it? Embedded in rock?

No reason why you couldn't use it, but you couldn't claim a naturalistic composition. Petrified wood is another matter entirely. I'm sure it has been used many times.

It's really hard to say.. The only reason I thought it was a petrified mushroom is because there were one beside it that had the exact shape of a mushroom, whereas this one has a flat top. I didn't find it in it's original spot and, unfortunately, I have no clue where it came from. It seems to have rocks embedded into what I'm considering at this point to be the trunk. It's really heavy and rock solid. I'll post another picture I took. It's really weird... I'm starting to wondering if it had been carved or something... I've been researching and talking to a few people and they say it could be anything, but it's definitely petrified something. -- I'm still trying to determine what it is. But either way, if I try to carve it down---if possible---it might make for a neat project.

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[Enchantra]

I'm a bit of a fossil and gemstone fanatic. Can I get a closeup of the grain patterns on the side of that fossil and on the broken top surface? I ask because if I get a closeup I *might* be able to identify it. There's a slim chance its a variety of Crinoid, but those tended to remain small not huge like this and had horizontal ridges which this fossil lacks. The other option is part of the stalk of a fossilized horsetail. Ancient horsetail species were huge and grew to tree sized specimens. A better picture will give me a better idea. Thanks.

You know actually doing a Root over Rock with that would be cool - sort of along the same vein as some of the bonsai work Nick Lenz does. It's different, give it a shot.

[slothrop]

Enchantra, on 06 November 2009 - 09:14 PM, said:

I'm a bit of a fossil and gemstone fanatic. Can I get a closeup of the grain patterns on the side of that fossil and on the broken top surface? I ask because if I get a closeup I *might* be able to identify it. There's a slim chance its a variety of Crinoid, but those tended to remain small not huge like this and had horizontal ridges which this fossil lacks. The other option is part of the stalk of a fossilized horsetail. Ancient horsetail species were huge and grew to tree sized specimens. A better picture will give me a better idea. Thanks.

You know actually doing a Root over Rock with that would be cool - sort of along the same vein as some of the bonsai work Nick Lenz does. It's different, give it a shot.

What a stroke of luck! I will do my best to get a more detailed picture. The camera I have is a lower-end Nikon, but I'll get as detailed a shot as I can.

I just looked up some of Nick Lenz's work and w-o-w! He does amazing things.. In fact, I had always wondered about using odd objects to nest trees in or to wrap trees around, and that was like a dream realized. Thank you so much for leading me to that

Anywho, I'll take some more pictures tonight/tomorrow morning and post them sometime in the afternoon(EST).

Thanks again =)

[Enchantra]

slothrop, on 06 November 2009 - 10:45 PM, said:

I just looked up some of Nick Lenz's work and w-o-w! He does amazing things.. In fact, I had always wondered about using odd objects to nest trees in or to wrap trees around, and that was like a dream realized. Thank you so much for leading me to that

Thanks again =)

You're welcome. Nick Lenz is about as close to an idol as I ever think I've had for any hobby. He shows what you can do it you think outside of the pot...

[Accrajucar]

It looks artificial to me. Are you sure it isn't just a smashed concrete mushroom people put in their gardens? Next to a gnome...

[slothrop]

That's quite possible, but parts of it look natural.. Plus my mom(who's house I got this from) used to collect petrified wood, and this could've been from some collection she had. Here are a few more pictures of it I took today(might be a little blurry due to the quality of the camera):

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[slothrop]

Here's the blurry one... Hopefully it isn't too bad.

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[slothrop]

Here's one of the top..... Starting to wonder whether or not it's artificial since Accrajucar presented the idea... My girlfriend said it could've been cut from concrete or something since there appear to be rocks in it, but the only thing I know about this is that I know nothing.

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[Enchantra]

Well looking over the new pictures I'm going to have to throw my weight into the notion that it is molded concrete that got busted. Your Mother may have had some statuary in with her petrified wood collection and over time the concrete got busted.

However you can certainly use it still for a Nick Lenz Root over rock.

[slothrop]

Dang! Ahh well, I'll see what I can make out of it. She has another one that's shaped more like a mushroom that I might use...otherwise she has a lot of petrified wood that might make a nice rock surrogate

Maybe I'll try to carve out the top of this and use it as a shallow dish with built-in legs.

Thank you for helping me out

[Pete H]

If you look at your first piture, you can see a name cast in it - "Herr" and an "S" are plain to see!

[Accrajucar]

Pete H, on 09 November 2009 - 03:30 PM, said:

If you look at your first piture, you can see a name cast in it - "Herr" and an "S" are plain to see!

Good eye! Hadn't seen that yet. But I think it says "Henri S".

[Pete H]

Accrajucar, on 09 November 2009 - 03:00 PM, said:

Good eye! Hadn't seen that yet. But I think it says "Henri S".

Yup - your right - and an 89 in front of the name! Tom Hanks has nothing on us! We've broken the code....