World Tourmaline Butterfly Necklace

World Tourmaline Butterfly

Necklace

Our butterflies are carved from world watermelon tourmaline, tourmaline found in various locations throughout the world. Most tourmaline comes from gems with a pink crystalline core and a green outer perimeter, although sometimes colors are reversed. Each tourmaline wing-set is delicate, light, and airy.

An inevitable first question that comes up is, “Do you make these with Maine tourmaline?” The answer is no. Fifty years ago it would have been possible, material for wings was available from Maine in the 1970’s. It’s long gone. In gems, when something is available, go for it. Just do it, because if you wait…it will be too late.

These world tourmaline butterflies are the prettiest we’ve seen. The guy who makes them understands living fairies. He absolutely knows how to cut, blend, match. He knows where to put and place colors, how much pink and how much green. I would love to have these butterflies in my garden.

These are world butterflies made from the world’s most magical gem, tourmaline.

Everyone Loves Butterflies

I grew up on a farm in Maine. On our side of the dirt road we had 40 acres, on the other side they has 40 acres. My bedroom was on the second floor of our farmhouse. Out the northwest window, across the field, was a horse farm and race training facility where I could see cowboys breaking and training horses in their corral an eighth of a mile away.  Our fields were filled with grasshoppers, crickets, and whippoorwills. In August every year the butterflies would molt. We had four types of butterflies, a yellow Swallowtail, orange Monarch, orange Viceroy, and black Swallowtail. Blackberries would ripen, the fields filled with wild flowers, and butterflies were everywhere. When we were little we had butterfly nets and chased them, as we got older, we became more casual about nature and accepted butterflies as part of the landscape. In truth, in our teens we hardly noticed, they became an unseen part of the world.

It’s now 50 years later. I live in a house about 25 miles away from the farm. I have a field, a marsh, and a forest next to my house. I see a dozen butterflies a summer. Most butterflies now are little, a plain variety, pastel yellow or white. Big butterflies are nearly extinct in our parts and even if I go inland to real farm country the fields are bereft of butterflies. Grasshoppers are gone; I’ve not seen one in years. Even moths that used to swirl around the lights at the front and back doors have thinned to a lonely few.

Butterflies are a magical part of nature. They, and other insects, are disappearing from our world. We should be concerned. Yes, consider our butterflies because they are beautiful. Consider one as a soul-felt reminder of our fragile world. We, you, me, all of us are responsible for changes on the Earth where our land is struggling to make environments friendly to insects and the rest of us. The thinning of insects is a clue, a concern to us all, it’s a wake-up call.

You may not lament the loss of moths at your porch light, or moths in your closet, please though, let the butterfly be your poster child of a good Earth, and safe Earth. Wear it for its beauty and for its symbol of nature and a good, clean, clear, safe Earth. I would love to return to a world where Whippoorwills, grasshoppers, and butterflies fill our fields. Yes for me, but more importantly for my grandchildren and yours too.

R.H.P.