6ct Cairngorm Quartz with Scottish Gold and Sterling Silver Pendant

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!

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.  

Elie, Fife - This short stretch of coast is called Ruby Bay by the locals, thanks to the rare red gemstones known as 'Elie Rubies' that are washed out of the volcanic rock and can be found by patient searching through the sand. The stones are actually a special type of garnet coloured by chromium rather than iron, which gives them a particularly vivid shade and led to their rather grand nickname. Adam and Richard have been painstakingly collecting the gems by hand for months, and we have now had a number of them faceted and polished for setting into jewellery. Elie Rubies are so highly prized that a couple even found their way into Adam's wife's wedding ring!

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!