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About Amber |
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Amber The Artist Ronsai Amber Jewelry Designer Amber Pendants Amber Perfume Bottles Fossil Insects and Botanicals in Amber Amber Sculptures Home |
The
Etruscans
prized it as highly as gold. The Greeks mythologized it as the
tears of Apollo's daughter that solidified when she cried for the
death of her brother Phaëton. The Romans considered a single piece
worth more than a slave. Cultures stretching from Central America
to the far East, and from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, have
used it both as a powerful medicine and as a medium for exquisite
jewelry and works of fine art. It is said that Montezuma used a
long amber ladle, carved and polished by the skilled jewelers of
Xochimitco, to stir his cocoa drinks. Nowadays people still use
amber as a protection amulet as it is also a gemstone of good
luck. In the world there are only about two dozen amber deposits, and only three of commercial importance, located in The Baltic, the Dominican Republic, and Chiapas México. Millions of years ago, trees from now vanished forests produced deposits of resin that transformed into what we know today as one of nature's most beautiful gems. The forces that caused the sticky resin to slowly harden remain a mystery. While still viscous, the resin acted like flypaper and tenaciously held insects, plant parts and even small vertebrates that touched it. Eventually, partially hardened yellow clumps fell from the trees to the earth. There, first leaves and debris, then soil and rock covered and buried them. All this time, the resin was developing the hardness, density and all the character of amber. The durable organic gemstone outlasted the parent trees, the forest they formed and the ecosystem of which they were a part. The viscous stuff that eventually becomes amber comes from a variety of ancient trees, mostly conifers including pine and relatives of sequoias and cedars. This Mexican amber is thought to have come from the Leguminus Genus Himenaea Coubaril. The Los Cabos Amber Gallery #18B Calle Obregón El Centro San José del Cabo, BCS, Mexico Mexico - (624) 105-2332 US - (720) 221-3724 |