Rutilated Quartz Ring
Discover my pieces featuring an intriguing material.
When I talk about Rutilated Quartz I immediately think of the Cube Ring.
In fact, it is when designing the Cube Ring that I first started using this material. It is in this piece that the different elements complement each other best. The ring shows off the rutilated quartz and the rutilated quartz shows off the ring, giving it light and life.
Rutilated quartz, my material of choice
Rutilated quartz is a type of rock crystal that has the peculiarity of having natural inclusions ranging from yellow-gold to grey with browns and reds in between. Rutile is a mineral composed of titanium oxide that can be found alone or in the form of inclusions inside rock crystals. It can also be found in corundum stones (sapphire and rubies), where it is responsible for the sparkle in starred sapphires and rubies.
Rutilated quartz is my material of choice. It is a material that captures light in a very particular way: the rutile reflects the light out in different directions, telling a unique story with each reflection.
I have been working with rutilated quartz for many years, and it truly found its place in the Bague Cube, where it undeniably contributes to the interest of this ring.
In jewellery, stones are never cut into a cube in order to highlight them, they are usually cut so as to reflect the light more. But in this case the cubic shape allows us to get into the depth of the material and to make the most of what the rutilated quartz has to offer.
It is a stone that has inspired many, and that has been given many poetic names over time, such as Venus hair or Angel’s hair.
Hardness :
7
Origin :
Brazil, Madagascar, USA
Refractive index :
1,544 – 1,553
Few are chosen
What I enjoy the most is the unique character that each stone has, the way that the light comes to play in each one before being reflected in an unexpected manner. At each movement something different happens, it reflects a different version of itself.
Rutilated quartz is found in different parts of the world, but mostly in Brazil and Madagascar. I buy it in the rough, and then get it cut by an exceptional lapidarist.
It is a truly lively stone, which admittedly is not that rare in itself; what is rare is to find the right density and the absence of bothersome inclusions, so that the beauty of the natural inclusions can really be brought to light.
In order to extract the most beautiful part from the rough, a lot more sorting and sifting must be done, and in the end only a few are chosen.
Rutilated quartz is a material that I would qualify as theatrical, and I have thoroughly enjoyed using it in other pieces, such as the “Tout un Foin” Ring, the “Carré de” Ring or even the Faith Ring.