Welcome To Jewels of the Caribbean

Here at Jewels of the Caribbean we are proud to present our hand crafted silver jewellery.

All of our pieces of jewellery come presented in a velvet box.

Postage and packing charges are by Royal mail recorded delivery.

The stones we use in our jewellery are all from the Dominican Republic; Larimar, Amber and Pink Conche.

Larimar

Larimar is a beautiful gemstone that is only found in the Dominican Republic.  Larimar stones are thought to have formed years ago as a result of volcanic eruptions.  It is theorized that as magma was forced from beneath the earth's surface, it mixed with a variety of substances such as alluminium compounds, sodium, calcium and iron.  This chemical mixture formed into what is known as a pectolite that is essentially a mineral occurring in radiated, fibrous or crystalline masses.  That is the cause for its unusual bright blue colour.

Because Larimar is exclusive to the Dominican Republic there is naturally alot of folklore surrounding it.  It is often looked upon as a powerful spiritual stone.  It is said to soothe, heal and enlighten. The stone itself represents peace, clarity and love and is reccommended for people who are stressed.

The volcano where Larimar originated, now dormant, is in the part of the Dominican Republic known as Barahona which is a large town in the southwestern part of the country.  Documents from the Dominican treasury reveal that about 100 years ago, a gentleman by the name of Miguel Domingo Fuerte Loren applied for permission to begin excavating the area.  It is unknown wether he was granted this  but it appears a mine was formed and then the idea was abandoned and the area was largely unexplored until 1974.

In that year, two gentlemen, one a member of the United States Peace Corps and the other a Dominican by the name of Miguel Mendez, reportedly found some blue pebbles in this area. It is said the began wading up river in search of more of the stones and in doing so they rediscovered the mine that had been abandoned so many years before. Within a year, they began excavating the area and today, there are hundreds of mine shaftes deep into the mountain.

The gemstone was given its name by Mendez.  The word Larimar was created by combining the beginning of his daughter's name Larissa with the word "mar" which is Spanish for sea.

Amber

Amber, a fossil resin is one of the few substances that is considered a gemstone but is not a mineral. It was formed millions of years ago when sap from trees dried up and hardened and sometimes insects or animals would get caught in the sap and preserve them for us to find today.

Nowhere in the world can it be found with the variety of colours ranging from pinks, yellows, reds, purples blues and even black and density as in the Dominican Republic.  It is also said that amber from the Dominican Republic is of better quality than anywhere in the world.  A large percentage of the amber used in commercial jewellery production comes from the Dominican Republic.  Due to the year round climate, the amber found in the Dominican Republic also has a higher concentration of fossils and insects than anywhere in the world making it highly sought after by collectors and scientists alike.

There are three main amber mining sites in the Dominican Republic located in the northeast and southeast. They are the Cordilera septentional in the north, Santiago and Puerto Plata provincesand Bayaguana and Sabena in the east. 

Pink Conche 

The Lambi conche or the Queen Conche (stombus gigas) is found in warm shallow waters in grassbeds of the Caribbean sea and other tropical waters.  It is also known as Pink Conche and in Spanish, caracol reina and caracol rosa.

The large conche has been used as an offereing vessel and sacred trumpets by many cultures world wide.  It is said to be used to calm or raise storms.