Why we love : Sunstone
Everyone has heard of moonstone, but what do you know about its lesser-known sibling, sunstone?
The Feldspar species is made up of seven main varieties, of which include sunstone, moonstone and labradorite. Feldspar is one of the most varied of the gemstone families in terms of how different each member is. They exhibit different colours, different optical phenomena and even different crystal systems.
Sunstone can be found in India, Canada, Madagascar, Norway, Russia and the USA. In 1987 Sunstone was declared the state mineral for Oregon in the USA. The Oregon sunstone is rather distinctive in that it is the only sunstone that contains copper crystals.
Sunstone is wholly unique in its appearance. It can be colourless, orange, brown or yellow as a base colour, and is often found with a mass of goethite or hematite platelet inclusions. These little inclusions tend to be hexagonal or rhomb-shaped and orange, giving sunstone its shimmer. What’s more, they are parallel to each other and stacked in layers, causing iridescence in the stone under certain types of light. We have taken some wonderful photos of our Sunstones under the microscope. You can view them online here or pop into our Greville Street showroom.
