Hello, hello everyone. Hi, I’m glad you’re here. This is “Tea & Gemstones,” your podcast home for talking about anything and everything to do with jewelry, gemstones, and precious metals. We talk history, fashion, science, and culture, diving into all the little details because I believe that’s where a lot of the beauty and the joy is. Oh, I should introduce me, I am your host, Jen, a lifelong sparkle enthusiast who really enjoys digging up all those details for you. I love to take you along on these auditory outings. I hope you have fun, I hope you learn, I hope this is an enjoyable escape from everyday life for you. So, let’s hang out for a little bit.
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Today I want to talk about a gemstone that combines the deepest richest blue hue with silver, gold and white, all in one luscious stone. It’s one of my personal favorite gemstones with a name that is just such fun to say… ‘lapis lazuli.’ To me it sounds like the name of an exotic princess. But the exotic sounding moniker breaks down like so… ‘lapis’ is the Latin word for ‘stone’, and lazuli is derived from the Persian word ‘lazhward’ which means…. ‘blue sky’ or sometimes it’s translated as ‘heaven’. So, lapis lazuli is the blue stone of the sky, or stone of the heavens, which is romantic and lovely… in my personal opinion haha. Lots of times lapis lazuli is just referred to as ‘lapis’, because while the name is an lovely alliteration, it’s also a mouthful. Lapis is one of the oldest gemstones… I mean, all gemstones are pretty old, being made millions of years ago and all… but it terms of human discovery, lapis lazuli is one of the OGs. In the Bible, there are many references to ‘sapphire’… however, that’s a gemstone that was unknown in that part of the world at that time, so scholars really think the writers are referencing lapis. As early as the 7th millennium BC lapis was being mined in northeast Afghanistan. Afghanistan has always been far and away the biggest producer of lapis, though small amounts have been found in Russia, Chile, Pakistan, and a few other places. But the specimens from Afghanistan are renowned for their beautiful deep color and high quality.
Lapis is considered an opaque gemstone. Side note, there are three categories of gemstone clarity or opacity- transparent, translucent and opaque. Clear stones you can easily see through, or more specifically, that light can shine through, are like diamond, topaz or amethyst- those are transparent. The middle category is called translucent and that means you can …sort of see through it, but it’s cloudy and sort of… foggy. Examples of translucent are like rose quartz and moonstone. Then the opaque category- stones that you cannot see through at all. These are stones like onyx, turquoise and lovely lapis lazuli.
Lapis has been beloved for over 6500 years, ever since it was first discovered forming amongst limestone and marble. And it’s not hard to see why- lapis’ color is extraordinary. Think about it… true blue colors don’t occur very commonly in nature and lapis’ mineral combination of deep blue lazurite, cloudy white calcite, and sparkly pyrite lends the stone its celestial deep blue hue scattered with silver and gold; it’s like a night sky full of stars captured and frozen in a stone you can hold in your hand.
It has been established in previous podcast episodes how much I adore shape psychology, but I think color psychology is equally cool. And I think color psychology has also played a factor in lapis being so adored. Blue is frequently given as the answer to “what’s your favorite color?” It makes you feel peaceful, tranquil… picture a wide blue ocean or an open blue sky over mountains or a meadow. Blue also harkens to loyalty and strength. Those are great qualities to elicit from a gemstone. While colors like orange or lime green can be more polarizing, blue is pretty universally liked. And everyone did like lapis- we know this because the ancient cultures used lapis to craft ornaments and objects they valued the most… meaning they were buried with their lapis items to take with them to the eternal afterlife. The most famous example of this is King Tut’s solid gold death mask. It’s one of the most iconic pieces of art in the world and this 22lb gold masterpiece is inlaid with lapis lazuli around the eyes and eyebrows. Ancient Egyptians actually believed their sun god, Ra, had a body made of yellow gold and lapis. The lapis around King Tut’s mask’s eyes wasn’t just an artistic choice, the ancient Egyptians believed lapis could ward off evil from coming into their soul through their eyes- they would crush lapis into a powder and wear it around their eyes. Queen Cleopatra famously always wore vivid blue lapis eyeshadow. So, the lapis eye decoration on the mask was to give King Tut the protection of the blue gemstone for all eternity.
While the Ancient Egyptians believed crushed lapis lazuli could protect their soul… there’s another nice quality to come from turning lapis stones into powder… it becomes a gorgeous pigment to make paint. Our first known use of lapis as a paint is on 6th and 7th century AD cave paintings in Afghanistan, which makes perfect sense- because that’s where lapis is found in abundance. When lapis lazuli is crushed into a fine powder and used as paint, it’s called by a new name, ‘ultramarine.’ Besides the first cave paintings, we see ultramarine used in China and Indian starting in the 10th and 11th centuries… but the most famous uses of this rare and expensive color came from the Renaissance era. It was the most expensive blue pigment and was considered to symbolized holiness and humility, so it was used a lot for robes for like the Virgin Mary or Jesus. 15th century Italian painter Cennino Cennini wrote in his painter’s handbook, “ultramarine blue is a glorious, lovely and absolutely perfect pigment beyond all pigments.” Ultramarine was considered the most difficult pigment to grind and there’s al sort of documentation of artists comparing notes and experimenting to try and get the highest quality blue for their work. There are many beautiful examples of paintings featuring ultramarine, but the most recognizable one I thought I could mention- since I can’t actually show you a photo with my voice… is the famous painting, “Girl With A Pearl Earring”. You know her vivid blue headwrap? That’s ultramarine paint from lapis lazuli.
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In 1826 a synthetic version of the ultramarine pigment was created, which greatly reduced the rarity and value of natural lapis for artists. I understand the economics of the need to create the synthetic ultramarine but it is still makes me a little wistful to look back through history and see lapis sort of… fall, I suppose? I feel like I can’t commit to saying, ‘oh, lapis lazuli fell from grace,’ that seems so harsh. But for hundreds of years lapis was so prized that an ounce of high-quality lapis lazuli cost about the same as an ounce of gold and it was held in high esteem by royalty, Queen Catherine the Great of Russia notably decorated an entire room in her palace all in lapis, including the walls, fireplaces, doors, and a huge mirror frame. Nowadays in our modern world lapis lazuli is considered a ‘semi-precious’ gemstone. Here’s a point of comparison… in 2020 an ounce of premium grade lapis can cost about $160. An ounce is gold is about $1700. But the while the price tag has fluctuated, the beauty of lapis holds steady and true and it is still featured abundantly in jewelry. A quick browse of the internet yields beaded bracelets from David Yurman, dangling earrings from Anna Beck, pendants from John Hardy and Kendra Scott, and cuff links from Gucci, all featuring lapis. If you feel like a bit of a lapis splurge, Rolex offers solid lapis dials on several of their watches such as the Datejust, Daytona and Submariner. Lapis lends a unique aspect of individualization to a piece; because with it’s gold, silver and white flecks and streaks, no two slices of stone are the same. For it’s reasonable wholesale price point and versatility for carving and shaping lapis is also a much loved and used stone for indie designers. I did a search on Etsy for just simply lapis lazuli turned up over 178 thousand results. That quantity might be in part to the success of synthetic lapis and straight up faked lapis. In 1974, a man named Pierre Gilson Sr of France revealed he had actually created processes for three lab-grown gems, opal, turquoise and lapis lazuli. His opal recipe is the most famous due to the high quality of the stones he grows for about 18 months, layer by layer in his laboratory. However, Gilson lapis stones are really considered as “imitation” or “simulant” rather than exact clones because Gilson’s creation has some differing ingredients and physical properties from natural lapis even though it looks very similar. Though for most consumers buying a piece of jewelry for the bright blue color, it can pass as real. The straight up fakes of lapis happen because everyone wants the dark, rich, velvety blue color… so there is a high incentive to get that color. Sometimes someone takes a piece of poorly pale colored lapis and dyes it darker. Or sometimes more affordable stones like howlite or jasper are dyed blue to pass as lapis. But one of the easiest ways to test if a lapis is dyed is to wipe it gently with a cloth or paper towel with acetone or alcohol… if it’s dyed, the dye will rub off the stone.
Unless you’re testing your lapis, you really don’t want to put it in contact with chemicals… lapis is a porous stone, meaning it has tiny, tiny open spaces within the stone. Other porous gemstones are like pearl, opal or amber. They need to be treated with a little more care than like a diamond or ruby. The Mohs scale is a scale to mark how hard a gemstone is, with a diamond at a 10 and a soft pearl at 2.5. Lapis Lazuli is about a 5.5, meaning it’s perfectly safe in like earrings or a necklace, but needs some tenderness when in a ring or a bracelet. One nice quality of lapis is that even if it gets worn down or dull, it lends itself easily to being repolished and rejuvenated.
Other little fun facts… lapis is not a traditional birthstone, it’s not assigned to any particular month. Though it is associated with the zodiac sign for Sagittarius. I didn’t really know that zodiac signs had gemstones assigned to them, I may have to dive a little deeper into that topic another day. One of the largest gem quality specimens of lapis is right here in the United States, in the Smithsonian National Gem Collection. It is a free form piece of lapis weighing over 165 pounds called the Blue Flame. It was donated to the museum in 2015 and now anyone can go and see it and marvel at the scale of the celestial silver and gold swirls frozen in the deep blue rock.
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I think if you asked someone “name a blue gemstone” they would most likely instantly say “sapphire.” And that’s accurate and expected… though sapphire do in fact come vibrantly in every single color of the rainbow and a couple extra hues too… they are without a doubt the king of blue. If you press someone, “come on, what’s another blue gem?” Maybe they’ll mention turquoise, topaz, maybe diamond. I’m not sure how far down the list I’d have to probe before someone mentions lapis lazuli. Haha, and I just cannot abide that, more people need to know about this gemstone. It was once so, so revered, so important and valued. And now… it’s almost like, forgotten. When I first set out to write a feature on lapis, I was more thinking about the history aspect and its unique appearance, but as I put together this episode, I realized I more just wanted to get the word out, “hey- look at this amazing stone, did you know it existed?” So… tell your friends, haha share this episode. Maybe start shopping around for your own beautiful ‘something blue’ for no special occasion at all except to treat yourself. And maybe consider bringing some lapis into your life.
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That’s all for this episode of Tea and Gemstones. I hope you had fun hearing me hype up lapis lazuli, the beautiful ancient blue gemstone you might not have known about before today. Headed over to Tea and Gemstones on Instagram and leave a comment on the show’s grid post to let me know what you liked or didn’t like… I can take it, I promise… about this week’s episode. And please feel free to message me and tell me if you have an idea for a future episode. Check out our show notes for a link to our website- all the transcripts for every episode are there, as well as the bibliography. Our theme song is by Joseph McDade, additional music by Audioauti. And I, Jen, have been your enthusiastic host. Alright everyone, until next time… Stay Sparkly.
T&G EPISODE 012
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“About Lapis Lazuli.” Rock Your World, 2022, www.rockyourworldgems.com/pages/about-lapis-lazuli.
Broecke, Lara. Cennino Cennini’s Il Libro Dell’Arte: A New English Language Translation and Commentary and Italian Transcription. Bilingual, Archetype Books, 2015.
Cherry, Kendra. “How the Color Blue Impacts Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors.” Verywell Mind, 22 Feb. 2020, www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-blue-2795815.
“Meaning of Transparent, Translucent and Opaque Gemstones.” Kalikasan Jewel, kalikasanjewel.com/meaning-transparent-translucent-opaque-gemstones. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.
Morris, Roderick Conway. “Lapis Lazuli and the History of ‘the Most Perfect’ Color.” The New York Times, 18 Aug. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/arts/international/lapis-lazuli-and-the-history-of-the-most-perfect-color.html.
Wikipedia contributors. “Mask of Tutankhamun.” Wikipedia, 16 Dec. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask_of_Tutankhamun.