Parlé Jewelry Designs

Gem Junkies

Perido or Peridon’t

Hey Junkies, here for your weekly dose? Well we have something that’s subtle, yet special. You probably know by now we mean Peridot! Lets go on a little journey to a time long, long ago, and to a place far, far away from Idaho.

1st Stop:

The island of Zabargad in the Red Sea, the ancient source of peridot, seen from the air

Zagarbad, the mysterious, “disappearing” island where Peridot can be found.

Photo courtesy of 

Next we visit a time in history where there was enough space in the world to “cast away” our enemies, and literally never hear from them again, (I mean could you imagine?!)

Classical painting of a robed figure recoiling from a giant serpent

Pharaoh casting away all of the snakes

Next we take you on a ‘wild’ color wheel ride where you can see this particular type of gem is limited in color variation. Everyone has a crazy green lady in their family, right?

Photo courtesy of https://ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/ancient-snake-deities-gods-ancient-mythology-006282

Chart of peridot colours, ranging from yellowish and olive green through to deep grass green

Color range of Peridot

This next one is for Brecken, who insisted i include the lily pads, and well, they are pretty.

Photo courtesy of https://jewelry-secrets.com/Blog/peridot-gemstone-august-birthstone/

Microscope views of lily pad inclusions inside peridot, the disc-shaped fractures that identify the stone

Brecken’s fav Lily Pad inclusions.

Photo courtesy of http://theonlinejeweller.org/lily-pad-inclusions-peridot/

This is what they mean by “nodules”- pockets per say where you can find smaller amounts of Peridot all nestled up.

Green peridot crystals embedded in dark volcanic host rock

You can find Peridot in small amounts in the nodules of Basalt rocks

Photo courtesy of https://hiveminer.com/Tags/olivine%2Cperidot

Alright, this is pretty metal. Looks like something they would right ANOTHER super hero movie about. Can we ever get enough super hero movies? (yes)

Jonathan’s fav peridot in a meteorite

Photo courtesy of https://reddit.com/r/woahdude/comments/1u676k/pallasite_metorites_contain_olivine_also_known_as/

Last stop but not least, Parle’s vault where I found a more than worthy piece of Peridot jewelry to photograph. They really are beautiful.

Round peridot ring in yellow gold with a halo of diamonds, photographed on bark