Components

*Madagascar Jasper cut by Gary Wilson
*Sterling earrings, seed beads

Earring drop length: 2" (5 cm) (stones are about 1.5" long)
Earring weight: 4.8 gm ea (a nickel weighs about 5 gm)

Item #686 - Sold

Madagascar Jasper Earrings

Madagascar Jasper Earrings
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Lovely thin slices of Madagascar Jasper make gorgeous easy-to-wear dangles.

What is "Madagascar Jasper" though? Google would have us believe it is Ocean Jasper, which this material most certainly is not. There are a few photos deep in Google's stash of something called "Polychrome Jasper" or "Desert Jasper" from the deserts of Madagascar, and I found a few examples that have these colors, so I would guess that's where our earring stone came from. The Madagascar minerals website says that Desert Jasper is "mined from the Norcross-Madagascar quarry near Analalava. Norcross introduced this Desert Jasper in 1994." Another site claims it was discovered in 2006 so there may well be more than one deposit. The extraLapis text on Madagascar (below) includes only brief mention of jaspers but I included it because it is a fascinating look at the "mineral and gemstone paradise" that Madagascar is. There is a photo of a 940 gm gold nugget, huge beryl crystals, a 700 kilo quartz crystal, the most intensely pink rose quartz you'll ever see, and a wide variety of specimens most of us have never heard of before. Thank heavens these wonders are appreciated and treated with care, not ground up for their mineral content.

I hope you will order these lovely earrings with their beautiful bands of color and let them whisper to you of the wonders of our Mother Earth.