For change
The Threshold Stone — Oval Alexandrite Ring
Green by daylight, red by lamp. It tells you about the room you are in.
A stone that was loyal in two lights.
Made after you order it · up to 20 days · 925 sterling silver
- 01 A stone is chosen for your order by hand, held to the light.
- 02 It is set in solid silver and cut to your size, finished, and checked.
- 03 It rests, and is wrapped by hand with its card — the stone, and the date it was finished.
- 04 Dispatched with tracking. Up to twenty days.
- Free delivery, no minimum
- Tracked worldwide
- 14-day returns
The story
The Urals, 1830s. Miners looking for emerald pull out green crystals that behave correctly all day and then, by candlelight that evening, turn red.
The stone was named for the young Alexander, later Alexander II of Russia. And the coincidence was too good to leave alone: green and red were the colours of the Imperial Russian military. A stone found on Russian soil that wore the empire's colours and changed between them depending on the light.
It became, briefly, the most fashionable gem in Russia. A stone that was loyal in two lights.
The physics is chromium in chrysoberyl, sitting in a narrow window where the crystal transmits both green and red almost equally and lets the light source decide. Daylight is blue-rich and the green wins. Candle and lamplight are red-rich and the red does. The stone is not changing. The stone is telling you about the room.
The Ural deposit was effectively worked out within decades.
Now the disclosure, and it is the most important one on this site.
This stone is laboratory-created alexandrite. Natural alexandrite of this size and quality is one of the rarest gem materials on earth, and a natural stone in this ring would put it into five figures, not £129.
Lab-created alexandrite is chemically and structurally the same material, grown rather than found, and it performs the same colour change for the same reason. What it does not have is the hundred and ninety years of Ural rock behind it.
I will not sell you a story as though it came with the stone. The story is real. The stone is new. You should know which is which.
925 sterling silver with a rose-gold plated finish, 6×8 mm oval. Made after you order it, up to twenty days.
£129 at launch, £149 after.
Materials
- Laboratory-created alexandrite, 6×8 mm oval
- 925 sterling silver, rose-gold plated
- Made to order, up to 20 days
Look at it in daylight, then under a lamp. That part is not folklore and it is not a claim — it is just what it does.
The Threshold Stone — Oval Alexandrite Ring
Every frame is the piece itself, photographed as it is — alexandrite, set in solid sterling silver.
Alexandrite
A stone that was loyal in two lights.
-
01
The one everybody knows
Change
Green by daylight, red by lamp. Carried for transformation for the simple reason that it visibly does it, in your hand, in about the time it takes to walk indoors.
Russian, from the 1830s -
02
Less known
Two loyalties
Found in the Urals and named for the young Alexander, later Alexander II. The coincidence was too good to leave alone: green and red were the colours of the Imperial Russian military. A stone found on Russian soil wearing the empire’s colours.
Ural emerald mines, 1830s -
03
Almost nobody knows
It is describing the room
Chromium in chrysoberyl, sitting in a narrow window where the crystal transmits green and red almost equally and lets the light source decide. The stone is not changing. It is telling you what kind of light you are standing in.
Physics, not folklore
All of the above is history and folklore, written down because it is real and it is interesting. It is not a claim about what the stone will do. Some people feel something. Some don’t. More in The Codex
Everything we can tell you
-
01
The stone
Alexandrite. What we know about the material in this piece is written on the page above, in the measurements we were given. Where a stone is lab-grown or treated we say so by name. We never call a treated stone natural, and we never use the phrase “semi-precious”.
Read what it has been carried for → -
02
The metal
Solid 925 sterling silver. This design carries a plated finish over that silver. Plating is a surface, and it wears with time; the silver beneath it does not. We never plate base metal, and we never describe plating as solid gold.
How to keep it → -
03
Made after you order
Nothing here sits in a warehouse. Work begins when the order does, and the piece takes up to 20 days before it ships. Your ring size is cut at that point, which is why we ask for it at checkout.
Making & delivery → -
04
Size & fit
Ring sizes run 4.5 to 10 (UK J to U). Measure warm, at the end of the day, and take the reading three times.
How to measure at home →
- Free UK delivery
- 30-day returns
- Hallmarked 925 silver
- Nickel-safe fittings
- Gift box included
