Description
This raw moldavite pendant holds a single piece of Czech tektite weighing 2.12g, set in 925 sterling silver with an open bail so it hangs on a chain of your choosing. The stone measures [00 x 00]mm across the face. The pendant in the photographs is the pendant that arrives.
Moldavite is a natural glass rather than a crystal. Around 15 million years ago a meteorite struck what is now southern Germany, at the Nordlinger Ries crater, and threw molten rock out across central Europe. It cooled in flight and fell to earth hundreds of kilometres east of the impact, most of it landing in southern Bohemia and Moravia.
That geography is the whole definition. Glass thrown out by a different impact anywhere else in the world is still a tektite, but it is not moldavite. The name belongs to this one event and this one strewn field. This piece came out of the Chlum sand mine in South Bohemia.
What to look for in a raw moldavite pendant
Moldavite is among the most imitated materials sold as a crystal, so it is worth knowing what you are actually looking at.
The surface carries most of the answer. Natural moldavite is etched, pitted and grooved from millions of years sitting in sediment, and those grooves run in fine irregular lines rather than an even repeating texture. Turn it in the light and you will find gas bubbles and swirls suspended inside the glass.
Green bottle glass poured into a mould has none of that. It comes out smooth, evenly coloured, clean through the middle, and the pitting on the imitations is usually too regular and too shallow.
This piece is set raw rather than faceted for that reason. Cutting and polishing moldavite takes the etched surface off entirely, and the surface is the part that tells you what you have.
The colour here is a deep mossy green running towards olive, denser through the body than the thinner pieces, with the etched ridges catching paler where the light sits on them. [Check this against the piece in your hand, screens shift green badly.]
Caring for a raw moldavite pendant
Moldavite sits at around 5.5 on the Mohs scale, softer than quartz, and it breaks with a conchoidal fracture the way all glass does. Two things follow from that.
It will chip if it meets something harder than itself. Store it away from quartz points and away from other jewellery rather than loose in a box, and take it off before anything physical.
It does not want salt, and it does not want an ultrasonic cleaner. Warm water and a soft cloth is enough. For cleansing, use sound, breath or moonlight.
The silver will tarnish over time, which is normal for sterling. A silver cloth brings it back without touching the stone.
Traditional correspondences
Moldavite is worked with for change rather than for comfort. In traditional practice it is the piece reached for when something has already run its course and needs to move, and it is usually described as fast rather than gentle.
Because of that, most people pair it with something grounding, black tourmaline or haematite, and build up to wearing it rather than putting it on for a full day straight away. Starting with an hour is a common approach.
It is most often associated with the heart and the third eye, and with clearing rather than soothing.
Correspondences are traditional and are offered as part of a practice, not as a substitute for medical or professional advice.
What you receive
The pendant shown in the photographs, in 925 sterling silver. A chain is not included.
See the rest of the moldavite currently in stock, or browse the full pendant range.
For the mineralogy behind the material, Mindat holds the reference data on moldavite.
