Dendritic Opal Earrings // Dendritic Opal Jewelry // Dendritic Opal Stone // Sterling retailer Silver // Village Silversmith

Measurement-30mm x 13.7mm

These earrings look like your looking through the branches in a winter forest. This white and gray opal stone has dendritic manganese mineral inclusions throughout to create its other worldly look. This pair of earrings are set in a high shine sterling bezel.


925 Sterling Silver
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Dendritic stones are one of Village Silversmiths' specialties, dendritic quartz exhibit black or brown tree or seaweed like opaque patterns in a lighter colored translucent ground. The delicate patterns form on a single plane, so showing them well positioned in the stone and clearly defined is a true test of the stone cutters art. The patterns are the result of manganese that crystallized on the surface as the layers of quartz were forming.

Quartz is one of the most common minerals of the continental crust and goes by a bewildering array of different names. The most important distinction between types of quartz is that of macrocrystalline (individual crystals visible to the unaided eye) and the microcrystalline or retailer cryptocrystalline varieties (aggregates of crystals visible only under high magnification). Chalcedony is a generic term for cryptocrystalline quartz. The cryptocrystalline varieties are either translucent or mostly opaque, while the transparent varieties tend to be macrocrystalline.

Metaphysically Known For: Clarity and openness.