4mm Matched Lapis Lazuli bead necklace, fine natural deep blue, the depth of the blue unlike any other gemstone colour, and given its own particular name: “ultramarine”. Lapis Lazuli is used as the pigment to create the ultramarine oil paint, the most costly of all oils, a favourite colour of Titian and Michelangelo and many other storied classical painters and artists.
Origin of the Lapis Lazuli in the above strand is the ancient mines in the mountainous regions of north-east Afghanistan, sole source of this fabled gemstone throughout Antiquity. Lapis Lazuli in commercial quantity was found in Chile in the late 1800s, but is often overly included with whitish calcite, and dyed to mask this.
Professionally strung in Sydney on “tiger tail”, plastic coated wire, quite strong, with London-made 9ct Gold beads and spring clasp, there being no manufacturer of these items in Australia.