Chrysoprase Prehnite #30

Some pieces are made alone in the studio in the quiet hours. This one was made with someone in mind from the very first bead.

I have loved chrysoprase since I was young. I once had a donut-shaped piece of pure green that I wore scuba diving — that particular translucent green that belongs equally to tropical water and to the earth beneath it. Eventually I turned it into a necklace for my sister. Chrysoprase has always meant something to me beyond its beauty.

This piece began when a friend — the kind of friend who is really a sister — and I went shopping for stones together. We chose the chrysoprase disk beads side by side. We chose the prehnite together. She loves prehnite the way I love chrysoprase, and standing there choosing them felt like exactly the right way to begin. There is a sister necklace to this one, made for her. These two pieces exist in the world together, held by two women who found the stones at the same moment.

Chrysoprase is one of the rarest of all green stones — Australia is its only significant source in the world, which is why the finest material is known as Australian jade. Look closely at the disk beads that form the body of this necklace. The matrix running through them is unlike anything I have seen in another stone — somewhere between the iridescence of opal and the extraordinary colours of the thermal pools at Yellowstone. Mineral fire suspended in green.

The pendant is prehnite (Morocco) — that pale, luminous, otherworldly green — in a hand-sculpted setting finished with 22 carat gold leaf. And the sunstone is here too, set at the bail — warm, golden, glowing. It reminds me of time spent in Sedona, Arizona. That red rock landscape, that particular quality of southwestern light. Sunstone carries that energy wherever it goes.

Three stones. Three landscapes. One friendship.

Chrysoprase works with the heart chakra — joy, optimism, unconditional love. Prehnite (Morocco) deepens that with inner peace. Sunstone brings warmth and vitality through the solar plexus chakra.

A note on care: Chrysoprase is sensitive to prolonged direct sunlight and should be stored away from strong light to preserve its extraordinary colour.

MATERIALS & DIMENSIONS

• Australian chrysoprase disk beads
• Prehnite (Morocco) cluster pendant
• Sunstone
• 22K gold leaf
• Hand-sculpted setting
• Weight: 131 g / 4.59 oz
• Pendant: 5 cm / 1.95 in wide, 9.5 cm / 3.71 in tall
• Total length: 38.5 cm / 15.02 in — pendant drop 22 cm / 8.58 in

One of a kind. Made once. Yours alone.