{"title":"Agate","description":"\u003cp\u003eNamed after a Sicilian river that ran out of it. The stone of being able to prove it.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"green-agate-bird-butterfly-ring","title":"The Flight Itself — Green Agate Bird \u0026 Butterfly Ring","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIt is the stone of being able to prove it.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is a river in Sicily that has been renamed at least four times. Around 300 BC it was called the Achates, and a Greek called Theophrastus — Aristotle's student, the first person we know of who tried to write a serious book about rocks — recorded that a banded stone was being pulled out of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe named the stone after the river. Agate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe river is now the Dirillo and has almost no agate left in it. The name outlived the supply by two thousand three hundred years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefore it was jewellery it was administration. In Mesopotamia agate was carved into cylinder seals, rolled across wet clay to sign a contract. Rome kept the habit and put it into signet rings — a stone hard enough to take a carving, and hard enough that the carving would not soften after ten thousand pressings. When a Roman pressed an agate into wax, the point was not decoration. The point was that this could not be faked.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is the stone of being able to prove it.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe banding is real geology, not pattern-making: chalcedony laid down in the cavity of a lava bubble, one microscopically thin layer at a time, each one recording a slightly different chemistry in the water that made it. You are looking at a sediment log. It just happens to be beautiful.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003cp\u003eI chose green agate here because the silver work is already busy — a bird, a butterfly, leaves — and a loud stone would have turned it into an argument. The agate sits underneath all of it and holds still.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e925 sterling silver with gold plating on the wings and leaves, so the two metals do the work the stone is not asking to do. The band is open, which means a little forgiveness in the fit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMade after you order it. Up to twenty days.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e£159 at launch, £179 after.\u003c\/strong\u003e This one takes the longest at the bench of anything in the first collection, because every leaf edge is finished by hand and there is nowhere to hide a rushed one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMaterials\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural green agate — 3.5×7 mm marquise, 4×6 mm oval and pear, 3×3 mm round\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNano emerald-green accent stones — laboratory-grown, not mined emerald\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e925 sterling silver with gold plating\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOpen band — adjusts a little\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMade to order, up to 20 days\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCarried for centuries as a stone of steadiness and of proof. Some people feel something when they put it on. Some don't. If you don't, it is still a two-thousand-year-old idea you are wearing on your finger.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Asi8","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49038640414890,"sku":"ASI8-AGA-001","price":159.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/files\/p01a.jpg?v=1786491298"},{"product_id":"green-agate-multi-stone-ring","title":"Gathered Force — Green Agate Multi-Stone Ring","description":"\u003cp\u003eSixteen pear-cut green agates, set close along a band that runs the length of the finger. One stone would be a detail. Sixteen is a decision.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgate is a banded chalcedony — it grows in layers inside a cavity, which is why no two stones in this ring hold the light the same way. Seen together, the differences are the point.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMaterials\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural green agate: 5 × 7 mm (0.63 ct each) and 4 × 4 mm (0.25 ct each)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eApprox. 43 mm along the finger\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSolid 925 sterling silver\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eMade to order. Because the stones are natural, colour and banding vary between pieces.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Asi8","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49045090009258,"sku":null,"price":219.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/files\/31-1.jpg?v=1786612695"},{"product_id":"moss-agate-pear-ring-set","title":"Forest Trace — Moss Agate Pear Ring Set","description":"\u003cp\u003eMoss agate is not moss. The green threads inside it are mineral inclusions — usually iron or manganese — that grew through the silica while it was forming. They only look like plants.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhich is why no two of these rings are the same. A pear-cut stone sits above a crown of marquise-cut clear stones; the two bands stack into one shape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMaterials\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural moss agate, pear cut\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMarquise and round accent stones\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSolid 925 sterling silver with a rose gold-tone plated finish\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTwo-piece stacking set\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eMade to order. Because the inclusions are natural, the pattern in your stone will not match the photograph exactly — that is the point of the stone.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Asi8","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49045092434090,"sku":null,"price":159.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/files\/43-1.jpg?v=1786612740"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/collections\/p01a.jpg?v=1786536635","url":"https:\/\/asieight.com\/collections\/agate.oembed","provider":"Asi8","version":"1.0","type":"link"}