Сoffee, moons and chocolate in brown moonstone earrings by hemmerle

In this cosmic design, two coffee bean-shaped moonstones, totalling over 150 carats, with a perfect, warm lacquer shade, dangle below elegantly hand-sculpted bronze and white gold Moon craters.

Part of the feldspar group of minerals, this mysterious, shimmering stone, which possesses the unique quality of being simultaneously iridescent and milky, is not easy to play around with. But in the right hands, the elements of the Earth reveal their potential for extreme beauty and become the stars – and the moons – for even the most refined of jewelry boxes.

Hemmerle, with their sophisticated and balanced approach, offered an opportunity to these intriguing, but largely forgotten stones to prove themselves.

As noted above, moonstones stem from the feldspar group and are composed of thin, alternating layers of two feldspar minerals: orthoclase and albite. As light passes between these layers, it is scattered into multiple angles and endless directions, and that is how its adularescence occurs.

With this alluring mechanism, light hitting the layers of adularia is reflected and diffracted within the stone. This curious phenomenon of visual motion – the soft light seems to move and roll across the gem’s surface – gives the moonstone its irresistible and enigmatic appeal.

No wonder Ancient Romans believed that moonstones were formed by solidified beams of moonlight, while in Asia, blue moonstones were seen as gifts from the Moon, brought to land every twenty-one years by the powerful ocean tides.

The cabochons used in these Hemmerle earrings are probably the best cuts for moonstones, revealing the stones’ full potential to glow. Furthermore, since moonstones are relatively “soft” (standing at 6 on the Mohs hardness scale), earrings make a perfect showcase, because they could easily scratch or crack in rings or bracelets.

And you would not want that to happen to any of these smooth, lustrous, chocolaty stunners!