I've made 7 or so tables featuring ammonites. So many that I've run out of names and call this one Ammonite 159, becuse it features an ammonite and is the 159th table I've made.  

The quality of ammonites availabe at gems shows for reasonable prices has declined over the 10 years or so I've been buying them.  The problem is the voids that are really troublesome when I apply grout in the gaps between stones and rim.  When I started I selected ammonites that had minimal voids. I would then cover the voids with tape to keep the grout out.  That works great with few and small voids. I haven't been able to find 'voidless' specimines in the past years and have been forced to find a way to keep the grout out of large voids.  The example avove had large voids in most of the cells.  I talked to several people and they convinced me to mix up a clear epoxy and put it in the voids.  I did and you can see the result.  The ammonite was not quite level when I filled the voids so the voids are not uniformly filled to the top. Also if you look carefully you can see some small bubbles that I couldn't get rid of.   Not perfect, but I think the result is OK.   Now I can use my larger ammonites with large voids in my tables!

The other rarkable thing about this table are the two circular cuts I made with a chisel to follow the rim (large circle) and ammonite (small circle).  I got pointers on cutting Lyons sandstone for a quarry owner in Lyons.  He said it was easy, but you had to live with a little bit of breakage before you got the technique down.   That was about 8 years and too many broken pieces ago.  Actually a small piece did break off when I was cutting this.  It's to the left of the ammonite in the picture here.  You wouldn't notice this if I hadn't told you.  I'm really pleased with the chisling on this one.

The finished product is 18" tall and 16" in diameter.  It sits on recycled base and is  available on my web site and at the Wallnut Gallery on Longmon'ts main street.

I have a lot of ammonites in stock. I'd love to take one of them and work it into a table for you.