Dumbara rata kalala runner
Three weeks on a pit loom in Thalagune, in a pattern held only in the weaver's head.
$340
Meetiyagoda moonstone drops
$210
Blue-sheen moonstone from the one pit in Meetiyagoda that still produces it.
Materials & dimensions
- Meetiyagoda blue-sheen moonstone
- Recycled sterling silver
1.2 × 3.4 × 0.8 cm · 60 g
Care
Moonstone is six on the Mohs scale — softer than quartz, softer than the dust in the air. Keep it away from other jewellery in the box. Warm water and a soft cloth only; never an ultrasonic cleaner, which can drive the internal layers apart.
Shipping & duties
Standard $45
Express $80.10
North America · 60 g · includes $6 for fragile packing
Free standard shipping over $250.
Import duties and taxes are set by United States, not by us. They are not included above, and your carrier collects them on delivery.
The story
The blue shimmer in a moonstone is not colour. It is adularescence: light scattering off microscopic layers inside the stone where two feldspars separated as the rock cooled over thousands of years. Because it is a structure rather than a pigment, it moves as you tilt the stone, and it only appears at all if the dome is cut square to the right internal plane.
Get that axis wrong by a few degrees and there is no sheen — you have a grey pebble that cost you a good stone. This is the entire skill, and it is why Ranjith cuts on a hand-cranked wheel rather than a motor: a hand can slow down for the last passes, and a motor runs at one speed all the way to the mistake.
Meetiyagoda, inland from Ambalangoda, is the source of the best blue moonstone in the world, and the workable ground is not large. The settings are recycled silver — mostly melted-down old rupee coins and worn-out mounts people bring him. He has never bought new silver.
Ranjith Perera
Ratnapura, Sabaragamuwa Province · working since 1988
