The above picture is of Cheqy, 20ft underground in Sumatra.
He took the picture as it was an exceptionally rare, nearly complete, fossilised tree trunk (Usually, geological movement over millions of years fractures the tree into chunks)
This piece was excavated, sawn lengthways and turned into 2 spectacular dining tables. One of which would seat 30 in comfort. We saw photos of one of these tables, supported on fossil tree plinths. Quite a statement item of furniture!
We usually limit ourselves to bringing back items that John can (still!) manoeuvre from storage to the shops.
We first met him in 2006 and fell in love with the texture, grain, and provenance of the pieces he was making out of the fossil wood. Ranging from stools, benches, platters, book-ends and, of course, gorgeous tables of different sizes. You’ll always find some of his work in Drift.
The next picture shows, rather well, the lengths he and his team must go to to search out and unearth many of these fossil pieces.
An above-ground view of the excavation in Sumatra
Referring to the piece below, in Cheqy’s workshop, John asked the peerless question
It’s heavy – is it ok to leave outdoors?
to which the answer was
It’s been outdoors for 20 million years!
Doh! We were still learning
