'Teine' Scottish Jasper, Citrine & Garnet - Scottish Gold & 925 Silver Pendant

The term 'Garnet' belongs to a rather large family of silicates - Pyrope Garnets are always a dark rich red colour, and are the best known gemstone form of Garnet.  January's birthstone, Garnets are known to have a warm, deep red that is similar to that of a Ruby, and is often mistaken for one to the untrained eye!  When you think 'Garnet', images of sparkling red gems probably come to mind, but there are actually Garnets of many colours, with the rarest being colourless, peach, and green.   Used in adornment for over 5,000 years, Garnets were popular in ancient Egypt from around 3100 BC, being used as beads in necklaces as well as inlaid jewellery (gems set into a surface in a decorative pattern).  Garnet’s many myths frequently portray it as a symbol of light, faith, truth, chivalry, loyalty and honesty.

Citrine is a transparent, yellow variety of quartz, ranging in colour from pale to golden yellow, honey or almost brown, and may contain rainbow or sparkle inclusions. The name comes from the French word citron, meaning lemon. Citrine is widely considered a 'success stone' that can manifest abundance and prosperity - perhaps it's no coincidence that it was a favourite of Hollywood stars Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford! It also happens to be the birthstone for November, promoting 'energies of generosity'. 

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.  

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.

Relax - you can shop with confidence at Two Skies.  If you change your mind, simply get in touch to let us know you want to return one or all of your items within 7 days of receiving your order, and we'll get a replacement/refund arranged - no quibbles!

Please be aware that this item is also currently displayed for sale at our shop in Edinburgh - unlike the rest of the items on our website, it is not a website exclusive item.  Therefore, there is a small chance that it may have sold in the shop approximately the same time as it is purchased online - however, we will do our best to avoid this scenario by removing unavailable items as and when they are sold.