All About Gems & Jewelry Making — Sunstone

Learn All About Sunstone

Learn All About Sunstone

Sunstone is a favorite of mine.  The soft peachy orange color with sprinkles of shimmery specks, provides a unique and fancy look.  You don't see sunstone in much jewelry, as most people have never heard of the stone.  The stone is found in various places around the world, including being mined from Oregon, so we can support our country and look fabulous while doing so. 

I love to pair the stone with moonstone and/or labradorite, since they all share a shimmer characteristic.  

Sunstone shows a distinct and lively glitter called aventurescence. Aventurescence is a sparkly, metallic-looking luster caused by flat, reflective inclusions, sometimes called “schiller” by sunstone fanciers. Whereas, labradorite has "Labradorescence." Labradorescence is not a display of colors reflected from the surface of a specimen. Instead, light enters the stone, strikes a twinning surface within the stone, and reflects from it. The color seen by the observer is the color of light reflected from that twinning surface. Different twinning surfaces within the stone reflect different colors of light. Light reflecting from different twinning surfaces in various parts of the stone can give the stone a multi-colored appearance.

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