Scottish 1ct Kingdom 'Diamond' Pendant with Scottish Gold

Kingdom 'Diamonds', Fife
Presenting an affordable and locally-sourced alternative to April's birthstone, diamond. 'Kingdom Diamonds' from our very own Burntisland!

A beautiful form of rock crystal, 'Kingdom' Diamonds were romantically named by local sailors, who told tales of being guided home along the Forth by the moonlight glittering on jewels in the hills:

"Aboon the Green about an ell,

Ye'l see a ferlie;

Whytes blazin' out a fiery peat -

Syne spluterin' like a burs tin ba'

O red hot iron".

The source quarry os an excavation of an extinct volcano, and in fact the closest gem deposit to Two Skies HQ. When first opened, large caverns allowed workers to stand along-side formations of smoky quartz, amethyst, calcite, and apophyllite.

Since the mineral zone has long been dug out, the 'diamonds' of Fife - praised in records since Sir Robert Sibbald in the 1600's - are predominantly packed away in private collections, and considered a thing of myths by the average Scot.

Scottish Gold
We work with a very small team of dedicated Gold Prospectors here in Scotland, in keeping with our low impact and ethical practices ethos. It's important to us that none of the people we work with source their gold using environmentally destructive methods, such as commercial gold mining.

Our Scottish Gold has been laboratory tested to verify a purity of approximately 18 carats. We hallmark at 14ct as it is the lowest we can legitimately stamp our gold - in reality, a single tiny Scottish Gold flake can vary from 14ct up to 22ct over its structure.

We prefer to leave our gold as is - we never add non-Scottish Gold to bring up the 'carat count', and our Scottish Gold is also completely natural - no toxic chemicals have been added to bring the gold to a specific purity.

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.