Labradorite

Moonstone, Labradorite, Amazonite, Sunstone, Spectrolite and Orthoclase are all members of the Feldspar family. Did you know that feldspar is the most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust? Gemstones in the feldspar family are often described as having schiller, opalescent or adularescence. These terms refer to the shimmery effect that appears just below the surface when moved around a light. The feldspar family is split into two groups; Orthoclase e.g. moonstone, amazonite, and plagioclase e.g. labradorite and aventurine.

Labradorite is a plagioclase feldspar which has a triclinic crystal structure and vitreous lustre, with visible cleavage plains and uneven splintered fractures. Twinning of the crystal is quite common. It scores a 6 on the Mohs’ scale so requires a secure and protective design if worn on a daily basis. It is quite an unusual choice particularly for engagement rings and wedding rings and many people are not even familiar with this intriguing gemstone.

This unusual gemstone is available in a range of colours and often has displays of several colours to give your engagement ring or wedding rings a truly unique appearance. Labradorite colours can be yellow, orange, red, colourless, grey-black, grey-brown with intense blue, green, yellow, orange iridescent schiller flashes. The base colour is usually a silvery-grey colour in most stones. The interference of this gemstone gives an iridescent metallic rainbow effect, similar to that of a black opal. This rainbow play of colour is known as labradorescence. Labradorescence is a rainbow schiller effect which is caused by light refracting within the lamellar intergrowths of the crystal. Moonstone, Spectrolite and sunstone are also known for having labradorescence.

It is believed to represent the ‘temple of the stars’ and is thought to bring clarity of thought, develop psychic abilities and even improve your night vision and help you loos weight!

It is mined usually via open pit mining in public mines by hand and small scale machinery. Labradorite can be found at quite deep levels and so underground methods are required. This involves the use of large vertical or horizontal tunnelling to allow access for miners and machinery at a deeper level.

There are allot of poor quality stones out there so be careful when choosing a gemstone! They can be sourced from around 3mm to 50mm. If you take a trip down to The Jurassic Coast to explore the amazing fossil shops you will probably come across some of these amazing gems in some fairly large sizes… I was lucky enough to see amazing spheres of this stone measuring approximately 50cm in diameter, don’t get any ideas though… this could be tricky to pop on an engagement ring! They are often cut in beads, en cabochon and in polished slabs, however facetted stones are available too. It is found in metamorphic and igneous rocks in Labrador (Canada), Norway, Finland and Russia. Spectrolite is the trade name for labradorite from Finland. It tends to have a dark opaque body colour with a blue, pink, orange or yellow schiller. There is also a laboratory-produced form of labradorite which is known as andesine which is created by using diffusion treatment.