Stones unique to Grand Cayman

[cactusqueen]

I am a jewelry lover, and I especially like to collect stones unique to a certain area. I will be going to Grand Cayman in April and have heard about Caymanite and also Black Coral. Does anyone know anything about these stones (what they look like, price, etc) and if they are worth investing in jewelry pieces?

Thanks!:)

[drew sailbum]

Caymanite is unique to the Cayman Islands. Black coral is not.

 

Caymanite is a stone which is sometimes set in pendants, rings, earrings, and such.

 

Black coral is the stem of a certain type of deep-water coral. It has been harvested and polished for uses in a variety of jewelry and other decorative objects. Black coral cannot be legally harvested in the Cayman Islands, so all of the black coral is imported (usually from Honduras).

[cactusqueen]

Thanks Drew for the information. What does Caymanite look like?

[drew sailbum]

Doc Joe does work in both black coral and caymanite. Checks out his website for pictures of items made with each.

 

Caymanite is a layered stone, usually cut in a way to display the multicolored layers. Bacl coral is polished to a lustrous black shine, somewhat similar to onyx.

 

http://www.handmade.com.ky/index.htm <--- CAUTION, my system hangs up when I access his website using Mozilla Firefox browser. No problems using Internet Explorer. I have no idea why.

[Suebee42]

Ooohhh... it's like Malachite, but brown. Nice.

 

Thanks! I'll be looking for that while I'm down there (Tuesday, yay!). I make jewelry, and teach jewelry-making classes, so that would be something nifty to show off to my students. :D

 

Thanks again for the link!

[cactusqueen]

Very unusual stone...thanks for the link also!:)

[truesdpr]

Many thanks for the link - looks like we may be making some purchases when we visit!

 

Pam.