Skye Marble & Peridot Sterling Silver & Scottish Gold Pendant

Isle of Skye Marble
An island of rugged beauty - known as 'the isle of mists' - on Scotland's west coast, Skye is blessed with its own unique marble which formed millions of years ago in the shadows of the Cuillin Mountain range. Part of the only seam of true marble in Britain, the unique colour and pattern of every piece reflects the lush Hebridean landscape. With only 1 in 1,000 kg collected by Adam being of gem quality, any piece of Skye jewellery is truly a treasure, but to find gem quality pink Skye marble is even rarer!

Peridot
Peridot is August's birthstone. This gem has been mined for thousands of years, is mentioned in the bible, and was apparently a favourite of Cleopatra's! Peridot is one of the few gemstones that occur in only one colour: an olive-green. The intensity and tint of the green, however, depends on the percentage of iron that is contained in the crystal structure, so the colour of individual peridot gems can vary from yellow, to olive, to brownish-green. Peridot is considered a very joyful, warm, friendly stone that can ease anger and jealousy, as well as encouraging open-heartedness.

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.