Easdale Gold Sterling Silver Celtic Pendant

A real wee piece of Scotland - native Pyrite, which forms in amazing cube shapes, embedded in the slate rock of the Scottish island of Easdale. We've taken this fascinating natural material and through our cutting and polishing processes, have produced a native 'gemstone' which has been crafted by our skilled silversmith into this truly unique and unusual pendant.

Pendant measures roughly 37x10x5mm including bail, and comes with a complimentary 18" sterling silver chain.

Easdale is the smallest permanently inhabited island of the Inner Hebrides and is known as 'the island that roofed the world' due to the large amount of slate that was once quarried there and put to use as tiles. Adam visited in spring 2015 with a BBC camera crew to gather our raw material. The beautiful cubic pyrite that is naturally dotted throughout certain areas of slate caused it to be rejected by the quarrymen, who knew that it wouldn't make good roofing material - doesn't it look spectacular as jewellery though?
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.