Stones: Amazonite

I do have more jasper, but I thought I'd take a break today and show you a feldspar called Amazonite. 

Of all the minerals out there, feldspar is the most common. In fact it is 60% of the earth's crust. But despite its abundance, there are only a few varieties considered to be of gemstone quality. The name feldspar is a German word, which loosely translates as a rock that contains ore. And 'spar' is a generic term used by geologist to refer to any non-metallic mineral with a glassy luster that breaks on distinct planes. (Johan Gottschalk Wallerius officially named it in 1747).

You can see the breaks in the stone that add so much character to the patterns in the stone. It was named after the South American river, which partially flows through Brazil. And it is believe that it was originally found there, but mineralogists have argued that there are no green deposits of feldspar that exist in Brazil's Amazon region. As a result the stones were later assumed to be nephrite jade. Actual Amazonite is found only in a few places around the world. For a long time it was thought they could only be found in Russia's Ilmen Mountains and Madagascar. That is until recently, as it has been found in Colorado, Virginia, Australia and yes, Brazil.

Today I'm showing you 2 versions of the stone. One that is mostly the pale green color of the stone with streaks of copper running through it. They are paired with the same color Amazonite rondelles and copper. The second pair has a more grainy color in it so I paired them with a darker color of Amazonite rondelles. I do really love how the copper brings out the patterns in this stone.