Glittering goldstone makes high impact jewellery
It’s been a damp, cloudy and chilly here in the Midlands recently. Everything seems rather brown, the glorious colour variations of autumn having been rendered very dull by a distinct lack of sunlight. The world could do with a little sparkle right now so here are a few words about a favourite ‘stone’ of mine that glitters like gold and can look quite spectacular when made up into jewellery.
It’s called Goldstone. While many people assume it’s a gemstone, it isn’t a stone at all which is why you won’t find it mentioned in any books about gemstones. In fact, it’s man-made: a type of glass first manufactured by the Venetian Miotti family under licence from the Doge in the sixteenth century.
At bead fairs, you will usually see the reddish-brown version of Goldstone. It’s very unusual and really stands out under artificial lighting due to its amazing ‘sparkIe’. Goldstone is created by melting silica, copper oxide and other metal oxides and then sealing the liquid ‘mix’ in a low oxygen environment. The glass is kept hot enough to remain liquid while the copper precipitates into sparkling crystal clusters. When the Goldstone cools, it can be polished smooth into spectacular, glittering pebbles and beads, making it ideal for jewellery making.
While I love goldstone and am sitting looking at a lovely string of small oval stones that I absolutely must make up into something very soon, I prefer blue goldstone. This is made in the same way but cobalt is used instead of copper. Looking at blue goldstone is like looking up into a summer night sky full of stars – it’s quite spectacular and it makes truly stunning and eye-catching jewellery.
Blue goldstone pebbles and silver spacer beads make a fantastic statement necklace
You can buy goldstone online but with more unusual stones like this, I prefer to see what I’m buying. I bought a superb string of blue goldstone ‘pebbles’ from Ilona Biggins at the Rocks n Gems Show, bought some large silver beads to act as spacers and had the whole lot made up into a fantastic, high-impact necklace which I really love . In my opinion Ilona has one of the best ranges of goldstone – and semi-precious stones – anywhere. Check out her shop here and scroll down the list to see the goldstone.
The Magpie's Jewel Box 