Amber is the product from trees that existed millions of years ago as forests. The trees secreted a sticky resin when the branches were broken or the bark removed to seal against infection. During the secretion, the sticky resin would slowly run down the tree, gathering loose fauna and capturing unsuspecting insects. Once in the resin, unless the insect was large, it would be unable to free itself, would slowly die and become embalmed. Since it was then sealed from the air, the insect would be kept in perfect condition. In some pieces of amber you can see white around the insect. This is usually a sign that the insect struggled and in doing so made tiny air bubbles around itself. As well as gathering fauna and insects, in my collection I have amber with coarse hair embedded in it, maybe from a boar or similar animal, seeds and even droplets of water. Amber comes from a variety of places including the Baltic states, Domincan, USA and even where I live on the Isle of Wight small pieces have been found. There are different colours of amber which range from being transparent like glass with a tinge of yellow or white to a dark red/yellow. The colour depends on factors such as which kind of tree secreted it or whether it was mixed on the way down the tree with soil or leaf matter, etc. Not every piece of amber you search will contain insects but you may find lots of other things (see gallery) which also give a glimpse of our world 40 million years ago and more.