Mystery Sphere (Marshmallow Stone?) No1

£33

Enlarge Image

Enlarge Image

Enlarge Image

We saw this gorgeous sphere at one of our suppliers a little while back now. We loved it straight away but, very unusually, they didn't know what it was !

Our man had got them from a distributor visiting from Afghanistan who sold them as Black Jade - which clearly it is not. Not wanting to sell it wrongly as Black Jade, our supplier made up a name for it until he could research it some more.

Unfortunately, the name he made up is also a brand of kitchen sinks and drainers cast in a black resin and sold by kitchen design shops !

We decided to do our own research and soon found a similar, rare stone, called Firework Obsidian. Similar colours and patterns but this stone is just so not Obsidian. This is heavy and dense while Obsidian is much lighter and glassy.

Then we came across the mineral Diorite. Now Diorite is often a "salt and pepper" black and white stone, but sometimes it can show properties of Porphyry (i.e. be Porphyritic) in its make up. Porphyry is a volcanic rock that displays, mostly, a one colour background, but has within it, large crystals of other minerals. Such large, easy to see, crystals within Porphyry are called Phenocrysts.

We discovered that an Australian mine did in fact produce a black Diorite with pink Feldspar Phenocrysts that locally, in the region around the mine in Western Australia, was called "Pink Marshmallow Stone". But it still didn't look quite like the sphere that we had bought. The pink Phenocrysts were much larger than in our stones. And in any case, our supplier had bought them from a man from Afghanistan, not Australia.

And then, lo and behold, we discovered that a mine in Pakistan produced a very similar Black Diorite with pink Phenocrysts of Clinizoisite (instead of Phenocrysts of pink Feldspar) and this stone was locally called "Marshmallow Jasper" And it was much more likely that the chap from Afghanistan would also have some stones from Pakistan rather than stones from Australia !

Bingo! This is our Sphere. Well almost...

Although in Pakistan it's known as Marshmallow Jasper, it's not a Jasper it's actually Diorite.

So mixing together the Australian name of "Pink Marshmallow Stone" and the Pakistan name of "Marshmallow Jasper" we think you could correctly call this "Marshmallow Stone" - or if you want to be more specific from a geological point of view "Black Diorite with Phenocrysts of Pink Clinizoisite"

It's taken us long enough to find all this out and goodness knows what the crystal healing properties might be - but as a starting point, black stones are often grounding stones or protecting stones whilst pink stones are often heart centered stones or stones that balance or calm our emotions.

If you buy this gorgeous sphere - let us know how it is for you !

£33

	We offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you're not entirely happy, we'll give you your money back.
	All major credit & debit cards accepted (pay via PayPal. No PayPal account is needed)