{"title":"December — Blue Topaz","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis blue did not exist before 1970.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTopaz comes out of the ground colourless or brown. Swiss blue and sky blue are made — the rough is irradiated and then heated, which shifts the colour permanently. It is a treatment, it is stable, and it is disclosed on every product page here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDecember has four stones on the modern list. Blue topaz is the one we set.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOr the colour, at entry price:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/products\/month-in-colour-baguette-birthstone-necklace?variant=49085096034474\"\u003ethe December Month in Colour necklace →\u003c\/a\u003e — gold-plated solid silver with a blue baguette, cut from cubic zirconia rather than topaz.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/the-codex\/turquoise-meaning-history\"\u003eThe file on turquoise, December's oldest stone →\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/pages\/birthstone\"\u003eAll twelve months →\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"sky-blue-topaz-ring","title":"Plain Speaking — Sky Blue Topaz Ring","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis blue did not exist before 1970.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTopaz has been carrying somebody else's name for two thousand years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePliny recorded a green stone from an island in the Red Sea called Topazios and the name attached. The island produced peridot. It has never produced topaz. Everyone worked this out eventually and nobody was willing to renumber the whole of Western mineralogy over it, so topaz kept a name it was never owed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor most of history topaz meant a golden stone. Imperial topaz, sherry-coloured, from Ouro Preto in Brazil — a town whose name means black gold, which is a coincidence I did not arrange.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow the honest part.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis blue did not exist before 1970.\u003c\/strong\u003e Natural blue topaz occurs, but it is pale and rare and almost none of it reaches a shop. Sky blue topaz is colourless topaz — abundant, cheap, entirely natural — that has been irradiated and then heated to bring the colour up. The process is fifty years old, standard across the industry, and regulated: irradiated gems are held until residual activity falls below legal limits before they can be sold. The colour is permanent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo this stone is natural, and this colour is ours. Both of those are true at once and I am not going to pick whichever one sells better.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA simple ring on purpose. One stone, a slim band, dark accent stones along the shoulder. Nothing to explain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e925 sterling silver. Posted to you tracked — 5–10 days to the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the lowest prices in the collection, and the one I expect to sell most, and it is not the one I would call the least serious.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMaterials\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural topaz — irradiated and heat-treated for colour, as is standard for blue topaz\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e925 sterling silver\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFree UK delivery · 5–10 days\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTopaz has been worn for centuries as a stone of clear thinking. Some people feel something. Some don't. If you don't, it is still a very good blue.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Asi8","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49038645002410,"sku":"ASI8-TOP-008","price":139.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/files\/p08a.jpg?v=1786491297"},{"product_id":"shed-skin-african-opal-snake-zodiac-necklace","title":"The Shed Skin — Swiss Blue Topaz Snake Zodiac Necklace","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe oldest maker in Chinese myth is drawn from the waist down as a snake.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNüwa is not a minor figure. She is the one who makes people out of yellow mud, and the one who patches the sky back together with melted stone after it cracks. On Han dynasty tomb tiles she is painted with a human head, human arms, and a serpent's body below.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNobody drew that as horror. It was drawn as competence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhich is worth remembering, because the snake in the twelve signs has spent a long time being handed other people's baggage — mostly imported, mostly not Chinese. In the cycle itself the snake is not treacherous. It is the animal that gets out of its own skin on a schedule and keeps going.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe oldest maker in Chinese myth is drawn from the waist down as a snake.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSi, the sixth earthly branch, is the double hour from nine until eleven in the morning. Late enough that the day has a shape. Early enough to change it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe snake here is gold and coiled along a silver branch, and I left the branch pale on purpose so the two metals read as two different materials rather than one decorated one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe opal sits above in a rayed gold mount. Opal has had a strange run in Europe — in 1829 Walter Scott published a novel in which a woman wearing one dies, and the market for opals across the continent is said to have collapsed on the strength of a plot device. It took decades to recover. A stone's reputation is not the same thing as a stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe metal is solid 925 sterling silver with gold plating on the snake, the grass and the mount. Plating is a surface finish and it wears with time; the silver beneath it does not.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePosted to you tracked. 5–10 days to the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe coil is the difficulty — it has to sit over and under the branch convincingly, which means the two are finished as one piece and cannot be corrected separately.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMaterials\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural African opal — 4 mm round\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhite cubic zirconia accent stones — laboratory-made, not mined\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e925 sterling silver with gold plating on the snake, grass and mount\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePendant 25.49 mm across, on a box chain\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFree UK delivery · 5–10 days\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCarried for centuries as the sign of leaving a version of yourself behind. Some people feel something when they put a sign on. Some don't. Either way it is an old idea and it is accurately made.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Asi8","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49044068827306,"sku":"ASI8-OPA-021","price":189.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/files\/21-1.jpg?v=1786612306"},{"product_id":"blue-topaz-drop-earrings","title":"Open Current — Sky Blue Topaz \u0026 Amethyst Drop Earrings","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo clusters, one hanging from the other. Pear and oval sky blue topaz set against amethyst, with small nano sapphires closing the gaps — cool blue on top, violet cutting through it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe lower drop swings. That is the whole design: a fixed cluster at the lobe and a loose one beneath it, so the colour changes every time you turn your head.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMaterials\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSky blue topaz, 6 × 9 mm\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural amethyst, 4 × 4 mm and 4 × 6 mm\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNano sapphire and nano emerald accents\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eApprox. 28.5 mm drop\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSolid 925 sterling silver\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePosted to you tracked.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Asi8","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49045091418282,"sku":"ASI8-TOP-036","price":139.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/files\/36-1.jpg?v=1786612696"},{"product_id":"swiss-blue-topaz-deer-jewelry-set","title":"Blue Antler — Swiss Blue Topaz Deer Jewellery Set","description":"\u003cp\u003eA deer standing inside an open oval, with a green enamelled thicket beneath it and Swiss blue topaz set on either side like water. The necklace lies horizontally on the collarbone rather than hanging — the whole scene reads across, not down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe ring repeats the scene at a smaller scale, so the pair works as one image split in two.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhat is in the set\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHorizontal bar necklace\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMatching statement ring\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch3\u003eMaterials\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural Swiss blue topaz\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGreen enamel detailing\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSolid 925 sterling silver with gold-tone plated details\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePosted to you tracked. The ring is sized — give us your UK size at checkout.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Asi8","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49045092958378,"sku":"ASI8-TOP-045","price":299.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/files\/45-1.jpg?v=1786612741"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/collections\/45-1.jpg?v=1787777696","url":"https:\/\/asieight.com\/collections\/december-birthstone\/necklace.oembed","provider":"Asi8","version":"1.0","type":"link"}