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MOONSTONE, LABRADORITE & SPECTROLITE

A labradorite lying flat on my bench is a grey stone.

Tilt it and the colour arrives. The flash appears only at certain angles, so I set these stones for how the light will hit them when worn, not how they look on my bench. Everything here is made by hand on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.

Caught at the angle where they light up. A few degrees either way, grey.

Labradorite and spectrolite. What is the difference?

Same mineral, two countries, and the base colour separates them. Labradorite is named for Labrador and I love that it is Canadian: a translucent grey body flashing blue and green. Spectrolite comes from one deposit in Finland, its body properly black, and that darkness is why it flashes the reds, pinks, purples and golds Canadian material rarely does.

I love the dark mystery of spectrolite, closed and moody until the light catches it. Lately I have been finding labradorite that is striated rather than solid blue. All of it is natural stone, mined rather than made.

Why does the flash come and go as I move?

Because the colour is not pigment. It is light bouncing off layers too fine to see, and only from the right direction. Moonstone does a softer version of the same thing.

This is what decides how I set a piece. A stone that looks wonderful on my bench can be dull at your collarbone, so I find where the colour lives first. It is why so much of this is pendants and earrings: they swing, and these stones are best in motion.

What is the rounded wire over the stone?

I call them my rainbow settings: a rounded wire arched over the gem, sometimes two.

It started as a practical problem. A druzy agate needed something to bridge the gap between its two sides, and the arc was my answer. A customer who had recently lost her husband saw that piece and read it differently. She saw a broken heart being mended. She told me so, and I have been making them ever since.

Two arched wires over the stone. That is the double rainbow.

Every stone here is chosen one at a time, so most are the only one. When something sells it is gone. I do take commissions, though only in my own style. Tell me what you are after.

Questions about these stones

Is rainbow moonstone the same as moonstone?

Not quite, and the difference is more interesting than it sounds. Classic moonstone glows with a soft blue sheen. Rainbow moonstone is gemologically closer to labradorite, which is why it throws those sharper flashes of colour instead. The trade has called it rainbow moonstone for a long time and I use the name too, because it describes what you actually see. It is a real stone either way.

Can I wear these every day?

Earrings and pendants, yes, easily. These stones are a little softer than quartz and they have a grain that can chip if they take a hard knock, so a ring worn constantly will collect marks faster than one set with something tougher. Take it off for washing up and gardening and it will be fine. Nothing here asks anything unusual of you.

What metals do you set these in?

Sterling silver mostly, some 14k gold fill, and Argentium wherever the piece touches your ear. Argentium is a silver alloy with no nickel in it, which matters if you react to earrings, and it holds off tarnish considerably better than ordinary sterling.

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