Autumn Encroaching (Pietersite) Pendant

Say hello to Pietersite. Found in two places in the world, Africa and China, it's a fairly plentiful material, but the colors can vary greatly from stone to stone. At its rarest, it is a lovely deep steely blue color, but it is far more often found with combinations of red, orange, yellow, brown, and black.

This particular cab has a richness almost impossible to capture with the camera, but this photo does so pretty well. There are some small flashes of blue to the right side of the photo but mostly this pendant is deep orangey-brown and red.

While it doesn't have "a lot" going on, like some other stones I own (in which case I like to keep the metal designs clean so as not to detract from the stone), its subtle glow and color changes called for a fairly unadorned setting. I decided to set it horizontally, rather than vertically, and this back plate is probably my favorite or the crazy curvy plates I have done. It has a light texturing on the back plate and the bezel - just enough to give some depth.

Another shot which better shows the hints of blue in this stone.

Those blue flashes made me think of the Aurora Borealis, flickering through the night sky. But the rich, autumnal browns and deep burgundy-reds made the naming of this pendant pretty easy.  :)

I don't buy a lot of Pietersite, but when I find exceptional stones, I *know* they will make it to a good home, and I just can't turn them down. This is one of those.  :)