Hand Trades

LARIMAR

Found in only one place in the world – one square kilometer in the Dominican Republic – making it one of the rarest gemstones in the world. It is thought to be 20 times rarer than tanzanite.

LARIMAR, A VOLCANIC STONE
It is actually a form of pectolite. Although pectolite are to be had in nearly every hemisphere, none have the unique volcanic blue coloration of Larimar. This makes it one of the rarest novelties known. Pectolite is normally gray or white. Yet, Larimar is a beautiful blue pectolite. It is interesting to ponder the fact that the series of events that created this beautiful blue wonder have only occurred one time, in one place throughout the history of the world!

Larimar’s beautiful colors mirror the blue and white shades of the ocean and sky. No two stones are alike, each piece is unique, with its own natural beauty.

LARIMAR WAS 1ST DISCOVERED
It was back in 1974 by an American Peace Corp. worker and a Dominican geologist, Miguel Mendez, although the inhabitants and their ancestors at the location were long aware of the stone. They had once traveled upstream until they came up against a rock formation that seemed to be the source of this blue precious stone, and subsequently gathered the stones on the beach for decades.

The name “Larimar” was given to the stone by Miguel Mendez, combining his daughter’s name LARIssa and MAR the Spanish word for sea.

LARIMAR IS ALSO CALLED
the Atlantis Stone. A very strong defender of the notion that part of Atlantis could be found in the Caribbean was the psychic Edgar Cayce (1877 – 1945). For this reason, many look at Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) as a remnant of sunken Atlantis.

Cayce predicted that on one of the Caribbean islands a blue stone would be found with extraordinary healing attributes! It should be noted however, that this point is disputed by some.

MINING THE STONE
It is extremely difficult. Not only does the location of the mines make them extremely difficult to access but the area is subject to the hurricane season, often causing the mines to be closed for 5 months out of the year. Also, it is believed by some that the mines may run dry in the next 8 to 10 years.

THERE ARE SEVERAL FACTORS
typically considered in grading the stone, with color and patterning being the primary ones:

Color – the deeper, “volcanic” blues are considered to be “best”.

Patterning – the richer, more interesting, the better.

Luster – is it glossy?

Luminosity – does it seem to “glow” or have an inner light?

Clarity – is it free of obvious defects? (Pits, cracks, carbon deposits, etc.)

Translucence – can light pass thru a portion of the stone?

Chatoyance – a luminous band with a silky luster (like that typical of cat’s-eye).

There is no one particular factor that determines the grade; it is a combination of factors. The depth of color alone may not “make or break” the grade; the pattern and luminosity may bring up the grade of a stone whose color may not be as deep as others.

WHY DOES THE PRICE OF LARIMAR VARY SO MUCH?

Quality

As with everything else, the higher the quality of the Larimar, the higher its price. Or, like the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

Aside from the quality of the larimar stone, another factor that impacts the price of Larimar jewelry is the quality of the silver (or gold) and the silverwork. Metal that is pitted and/or lacks shine and uniformity should be priced lower than quality workmanship.

Size and weight
A major factor in the price of Larimar is the weight of stone. It can be difficult to make sure that one is comparing apples to apples when shopping online. What looks like it could be a large Larimar stone in a picture, may actually be quite small when compared to another.

Other factors affecting the price-
Larimar stone must be mined by hand; dynamite or heavy machinery can destroy it. So excavation is extremely labor intensive. Miners, using only hand tools, must find and follow the small veins of Larimar. The best quality stone is often found as far as one hundred feet below the surface; digging through all that rock by hand obviously takes quite a bit of time.

Then there is the rain. The torrential rainfall during the five-month hurricane season often shuts down the mines. Sometimes the mines flood and the mountain can unleash devastating mudslides. These factors contribute further to the difficulty of extraction, and limit the supply of the stone even further.

Once the rock is excavated, it is cut and graded. Generally, less than 10% is of jewelry quality.

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