Shireen - Natural Aquamarine Silver Ring

From the Rani collection by Orah Jewels and Crafts, a ring that presents a stone in its most unmediated form. Shireen holds a piece of uncut Aquamarine from the Skardu Valley in a silver bezel, the stone's natural surface intact, its crystal edges unground, the pale blue interior visible through whatever natural planes the formation left behind.

Aquamarine is a variety of beryl, the same mineral family as emerald, colored by iron in its ferrous state within the hexagonal crystal structure. Unlike emerald where chromium produces a saturated green, aquamarine's iron produces a blue that ranges from faint sky to deep sea depending on the concentration and oxidation state of the iron present. The stones that come out of Skardu Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan are among the most geologically significant in the world, forming in pegmatite veins at elevation in one of the youngest and most tectonically active mountain systems on earth. The Skardu aquamarine character is a light, clear blue with high transparency, and the rough form of the stone used in Shireen retains the hexagonal prismatic outline that defines beryl's crystal habit, so you are looking at the actual shape the mineral takes when forming, not a shape imposed by cutting.

The silver bezel is fitted precisely to the perimeter of this individual piece of rough, which means no two Shireen rings are set identically. The band is plain and slightly rounded, the bezel low so the stone reads as resting rather than mounted. At US size 7, the stone sits centered without height, the whole profile close to the finger.

Made at the Orah Jewels facility in Lahore. Aquamarine sourced directly from Skardu Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan. Natural, uncut, untreated. One piece.

Stone: Natural Aquamarine (Skardu Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan)
Metal: Sterling Silver
Size: US 7
Collection: Rani