Cairngorm Quartz Scottish Gold and Sterling Silver Ring

Cairngorm Quartz

Introducing the official national gemstone of Scotland! A particular type of smoky quartz found exclusively in the Cairngorm mountain range, it is known as 'Cairngorm quartz', 'Cairngorm stone' or simply 'Cairngorm'! 'Morion' classed Cairngorm Quartz is of a very dark colour and rarely found, thus more desirable (and expensive!). It was extraordinarily popular during the Victorian age and was a favourite gem of the queen herself. Whole families of prospectors nicknamed 'diggers' worked on the mountains throughout the 1800s searching for this rare crystal. Nowadays the land is protected by the Cairngorms National Park Authority, making the beautiful Scottish smoky quartz even harder to come by. However, Two Skies managed to obtain rough material from a private historic collection, which when cut made such high quality faceted stones that even we were amazed. Our contemporary settings are highly unusual when most Cairngorm jewellery pieces on the market are antiques - get your own piece of Scottish history with a twist!

Scottish Gold

Two Skies works with a small team of licensed native gold prospectors,in keeping with our ethos of supporting low impact and ethical practices. All our Scottish gold is painstakingly collected from Highland mountain streams using environmentally-friendly methods such as 'sniping' and hand-panning. It is a true labour of love to find Scottish gold (0.5 grams per day is considered a 'fine haul'!)Scottish gold naturally ranges between 14 and 22 carats in purity, so - as we work with the material unrefined - we can guarantee all our jewellery to be a minimum of 14ct.

Sterling Silver 925%

Why do silversmiths use 925%? Measured in parts per thousand, pure silver (999%) is too soft so silversmiths mix it with other metals to make it it harder. The purer the metal, the higher the polish, but it is a lot softer (thus less durable). The harder the metal is, the more hard wearing the jewellery is, but it will also tarnish easier as it has less silver content. Therefore, the silver industry set a standard percentage content for fine silver (925); what we know as "sterling silver". At Two Skies our silversmiths use 925 (sterling) silver for ring shafts and moving parts, and a very high 950% on our stones settings, which enables us to get a strong jewellery item with a beautiful and secure stone setting, without any gluing. Each piece of our jewellery is hand stamped with our Two Skies Hallmark alongside the recognised industry 925 Hallmark.