Sunstone Crystal Bracelet Grade 5A

Sunstone is oligoclase, a plagioclase feldspar, holding thousands of microscopic hematite and goethite platelets that settled in parallel as the crystal grew. Light strikes the aligned plates and returns as a copper-gold flash - aventurescence, or schiller.

The flash moves with the angle of view, so the stone reads differently with every turn of the wrist - quiet in shade, lit in sun. The body colour runs warm: oranges, honey-browns, soft reds.

A feldspar like the amazonite in this range: Mohs 6–6.5, slightly softer than the quartzes, with cleavage planes that ask the beads be spared hard knocks.

Asked often

What makes the glitter?
Thousands of flat hematite plates aligned inside the feldspar. Light strikes them together and returns as a single copper-gold flash - mineral, not coating.

Is it treated or man-made?
No. Sunstone is natural feldspar. Goldstone - the uniform glitter sold beside it in the trade - is man-made glass; this is the mineral the glass imitates.

Is this the Viking navigation stone?
The medieval Icelandic texts name a sólarsteinn used to find the sun through overcast sky - but scholars hold that stone was likely a clear calcite. This feldspar inherited the name, not the navigation.

How do I care for it?
Wipe with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry. As a feldspar it is softer than quartz - guard the beads against hard knocks, and keep the cord dry.

1. Worn on either wrist, over the hand, on a durable elastic cord.
2. Move it through direct light - the flash is the stone’s character, and it answers the sun most.
3. Wipe with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry.
4. As a feldspar it parts along cleavage planes - guard the beads against hard knocks on stone, metal, or tile.

Many traditions rinse or air their stones from time to time; that is a matter of preference, and the rest is yours.

The elastic cord lasts longest kept dry - remove before swimming, bathing, or applying scent. Do not soak.

• Stone: Sunstone · oligoclase feldspar
• Composition: (Na,Ca)AlSi₃O₈ with hematite platelets
• Crystal system: Triclinic
• Hardness: Mohs 6–6.5
• Character: Copper-gold schiller · warm body tones
• Treatment: None · untreated
• Band: Durable elastic cord
• Origin: India
• Care: Wipe with a soft cloth · guard against hard knocks

The medieval Icelandic texts speak of a sólarsteinn - a sun-stone raised to the sky to find the sun through cloud. Modern scholarship holds that the navigators’ stone was most likely a clear calcite, not this feldspar; the feldspar inherited the name for the sun it appears to hold, and we tell the story honestly.

What is beyond dispute is the optical fact: aligned plates of iron oxide, set down as the crystal grew, returning the light together. Across the cultures that have worked it, the stone was read as a carrier of the sun - named here as what people believed.