serpentine Fruit

This soft serpentine is layered, of varying hardness and almost without cracks. It is quite easy to chisel, but the varying hardness can be a little challenging.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

PROCESSING

Softer serpentine can be worked well with forged steel chisels such as point chisels, claw chisels, flat chisels and lettering chisels. Rasps and files can also be used. Harder serpentine or serpentine with quartz inclusions is easy to work with carbide chisels and diamond rasps.

Sculptures made of serpentine are particularly suitable for installation in interior spaces.

FURTHER INFORMATION

At bildhau, we sell serpentine stones from Zimbabwe. Most serpentine stones are quarried there on the edge of the "Great Dyke", a magmatite body around 550 km long and 4 to 11 kilometres wide, which is rich in minerals and ores. The serpentine sourced from bildhau in Zimbabwe is mined and traded fairly in cooperation with the local population.

The name serpentine for the stone is not entirely correct; the rock is actually serpentinite. Serpentinites have formed from serpentine minerals (e.g. lizardite, antigorite, chrysotile). In some cases, they also contain other minerals such as olivine, pyrope-rich garnet, bronzite or diopside-rich pyroxene, from which the serpentine minerals originally formed. Red colouring is caused by hematite (iron oxide). Serpentinite often also contains magnetite. Serpentinite is a metamorphic rock that has formed on the (former) seabed due to high pressure and temperatures, among other things.

Stone is a natural product. We endeavour to reproduce the appearance of our sculptural stones as accurately as possible in the illustrations so that the character of the stone can be recognised. Ultimately, each stone is a unique piece and the appearance may differ accordingly from the illustration.