About Amber
From Glory to Glory
Ancient civilisations such as Phoenicians prized it more highly than gold whilst greeks thought it was the tears of mythological heroins. Often thought to be distilled sunlight with healing properties, Amber has long been prized for its Mysterious Beauty.
Amber is the fossilized resin of certain trees. Conifers and certain flowering trees secrete a lot of resin. Amongst scientists & Biologists it is not 100% known what tree Amber resin originally comes from but there are only around two types of tree known today that still produce tree resin in large amounts. One is the Kauri Pine of New Zealand and a species of the Legume tree found in East Africa and south and central America. Resin from the Kauri Pine is called Kauri gum. However Kauri gum is not classified as Amber until it has been through the proccess of Fosselization which can take thousands of years. Incubated over thousands of years in the womb of the oceans Amber is an entirely natural substance & each piece of amber is totally unique from the next. It comes in array of splendid colors with internal inclusions also know as Sun spangles giving each precious stone that added allure of mystery and beauty. On a scale of 1 to 10 on a hardness test Amber comes in at about 3 as compared to Diamond at 10. This makes it about as soft as a human fingernail.
Time and Eternity have certainly not been the enemy of Amber. Rather, once upon a time, thousands of years ago, somewhere in the heart of a forest was a tree that was oozing resin, (it was bleeding). As the tree blood,,, (or resin as it is more commonly know), ran down the trunk of the tree and onto the forest floor. It was washed away by the terrential forest rains into lagoons and eventually carried by rivers into the sea. Over time and with the unseen hand of the almighty, a process began to take place. Metamorphosising from soft sticky resin and into rough and ready lumps of hardened amber. This process is know as amberization. All the volitiles such as liquids, gasses become extinct from the resin, making it hard and workable. Eventually over a period of time and after the shaking by many storms, the transformed amber is set free from the womb of the oceans and washed up onto the Baltic shores. Here, it is highly prized amongst the local folk, where many venture out early every day to catch their treasure. Eventually it will pass into the hands of Local artists and designers, where it is fashioned and set in precious metals such as silver, Gold & Platinum.