Nurielite - Stone of Fire
Nurielite is something you won’t find ANYWHERE. In fact, the stone was so overlooked by the original miners that they had NO IDEA it could be a gemstone of great beauty.
For this reason, AND due to it’s limited locality, there are VERY FEW AVAILABLE worldwide.
Mined in Madagascar along with many other gem-quality stones, it was looked at as a curiosity. Eager for something new and exciting to sell on the “New Age” market, Chinese investors arrived and mined most of them out, smashing the stones with hammers into small chunks to be sold as good luck pocket stones some called “Girasol”, due to the yellow it reflected back in the sun (Girasol translates to “to turn toward the sun”).
A few businesses that were able to get their hands on larger pieces, carved them into fancy shapes. When it was discovered that sometimes the stones produced an asterism effect (stars) when polished into a sphere, it became even more popular.
No one knows for sure how it happened, but legend has it that an old, talented gem cutter happened upon the unusual rough material at a local market and took it home. He had never seen anything like it — his curiosity was piqued. After carefully examining every angle of the stone, he made his first cuts . . . a basic emerald cut – nothing fancy, it took him 15 minutes.
But in those 15 minutes, he had in fact, uncovered something extraordinary! The faceted stone glowed like nothing he had seen before. The facets collected and bounced the light around, making the stone glow various colors.
He had to try another.
All night, he cut and buffed and polished all the material he had. More. He needed more. The next day he went back to the market searching for the same vendor and bought everything he had. He spent the entire day looking over the rough, taking notes and making his cuts. He lined the shimmering gemstones along his windowsill, and marveled at how they seemed to glow when the sun began to set.
What was this new marvel? It almost seemed like Adularia — a felspar gemstone found in the Swiss Alps that had been mined out long ago. It was fondly called “moonstone” due to it’s adularescence. The old gem cutter smiled, and donned the name “moonstone” for his new gem. Surely it was the same thing!
But that’s when the trouble began . . .
Gem collectors NEW it wasn’t adularia, and calling it “moonstone” seemed to be deceiving since moonstone is usually associated with feldspar minerals.
Nonetheless, the name still stuck as others argued it HAD to be adularia, so it was later coined “feldspar moonstone” by many sellers. A few happened to send the material out to professional companies to have a general assessment done, and it came back as “milky quartz”, for lack of anything better to classify it as. But still the mystery remained . . . no one knew WHERE it came from, or really what it was or what caused the unique glow. Some claimed it was trapped air bubbles, others trapped liquids. And so, the mystery remained and it continued to be overlooked in the gemstone community. “Glass”, “fake”, “treated”, “coated”, “cooked”. No one believed it to be real — it was tossed aside as trash.
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I was on a quest to buy inexpensive gemstones for our upcoming Christmas tree farm — I had a vision of selling stunning jewelry in our giftshop! I come across a “moonstone” for sale at auction, and placed a shockingly low bid of $5 . . . and won. I didn’t have any white gems at that time, so I thought it would be a nice addition.
But when it arrived, I was blown-away.
This gem was glowing PINK. I turned it a bit, and it changed to light lavender. I held it to the sun and it reflected yellow, the facets shimmering and glowing — a stunning fancy emerald cut. I opened the curtain. I closed the curtain. It changed from glowing pink to purple to orange to yellow, like it had a fire within.
I WAS HOOKED!
It didn’t take long before gem cutters heard I was interested in buying their creations and began offering large collections for sale . . . and believe me, these stones allowed the cutters to really put their skills to use. Soon they began producing cuts not seen before on other gemstones as they masterfully worked to create the perfect light bounce within the stone.
I knew this was something spectacular, but realized I couldn’t sell something with an incorrect name. I spent a good amount of cash sending stones out to universities and labs to be studied. Many refused, saying it was “just a quartz”, but one lab in Maine took interest. And what they FOUND was astounding.
The stones contained aluminum, and sodium, with trace amounts of titanium, iron, manganese and more! They seemed to have microscopic fibers within, NOT bubbles of air or fluid (although some did have those), and these fibers were what was causing the glow . . . just like high quality rose quartz.
They also seemed to have perfect cleavage in one direction (unusual for quartz). It was in fact, a NEW variety of quartz, likely related to pink quartz as it was also pleochroic. But wait . . . white gemstones cannot be pleochroic!
It was in fact, the ONLY “white” gemstone to be “colored”. While other white gems such as diamonds, topaz, zircon, sapphire, etc only reflect white and gray, THIS STONE reflected an array of firey colors — something never seen before in a white gemstone, making it “one of a kind”.
After some time, I finally located the mine it had come from (owned by a company in the US) — the company had NO IDEA their rough stones were being turned into gemstones! They were astonished by the remarkable transformation.
By this time, I had bought so many, I held one of the largest collections worldwide, certainly in the US. I couldn’t bear the idea of seeing such a lovely gem go unappreciated, so I trademarked a name for them, “Nurielite”, which translates to “Fire of God”. Contrary to their rough former selves, these gems actually look better AWAY from the light as they literally glow with their own fire, so the term “girasol” is fully incorrect for them, although many in the trade still call the rough “Girasol”, or “Girasol Opal”.
And that is how Nurielite nearly vanished from the earth, like the soft flicker of angel wings.
Is Nurielite actually rare?
In an answer . . . YES. Very much so. Since so much gem quality material was destroyed, and since it only seems to be coming from one mine, it is HIGHLY rare.
Much like my Nurielite stones, our beloved breed the “frenchton” is also often overlooked and under appreciated. Just like the gems, when you get one for yourself, you marvel at how amazing they are!
To celebrate our new gem, everyone who buys a full-priced puppy will ALSO go home with their choice of gemstone, mounted in sterling silver as a pendant or a ring.