Moonstone. The June birthstone, and a stone that holds light differently to anything else.
Share
One month from now, June arrives. If you were born in it, your birthstone is one of the world’s strangest and most beautiful.
Moonstone isn’t really a dramatic gem; it's not flashy or saturated. Instead, it seems to contain light rather than reflect it. Hold a good moonstone in low light and you’ll see a glow inside - blue, white or silver depending on the angle - that shifts as the stone moves. This is called adularescence, and it’s caused by light scattering between microscopic layers of feldspar within the stone.
The name itself is self-explanatory. It looks like moonlight trapped in mineral form.
Where moonstone comes from and why it matters
The finest moonstones historically came from Sri Lanka, where they have been mined for centuries. In Hindu tradition the stone is considered sacred - formed, according to the old belief, from solidified moonbeams. The blue-flash stones from Sri Lanka are still the benchmark.
Most moonstone in the contemporary market now comes from India, Madagascar or Myanmar. Indian moonstone tends toward a milky white with a silver adularescence rather than the pure blue of the Sri Lankan stones. Both are natural, both are beautiful, and at the small sizes used in a ring setting the difference is subtle.
What you are looking for in a good small moonstone is clarity of the body - the base stone should be as transparent as possible rather than cloudy - and a clean, centred flash. The flash should sit in the middle of the stone, not at the edge.
Why moonstone suits silver
Moonstone is one of the few gems that is actively improved by a silver setting. Yellow gold competes with the cool, slightly blue quality of the stone's glow. Silver lets it speak. The colour temperatures match - both cool, both slightly blue-white - and together they read as something coherent rather than something contrasted.
The hammered finish of this particular band works the same way. The soft, irregular texture of hand-hammered silver catches light in a similar way to the stone - both surfaces diffusing rather than reflecting directly. They belong together.
What I'm making for June
The June ring in the Twelve Months collection is a hammered sterling silver band with a small moonstone gypsy-set into the surface. The band is approximately five millimetres wide, hand hammered for texture, and made to order in my studio in England. Each one is hallmarked at the London Assay Office before it ships.
The faceted moonstone is approximately three and a half millimetres in a gypsy setting.
Two week lead time. £145.
The Twelve Months collection is twelve handmade silver bands, one for each birthstone, made to order at my studio in England. New pieces published monthly. Sign up to the newsletter to be told when each one goes live.