Caribbean Larimar

Larimar is a very beautiful and distinctive-looking stone found in the Caribbean. The stone itself is actually a pectolite (calcium-sodium silicate); however, its blue, blue-green and white hues, as well as the fact that it stems from one location, make it a one-of-a-kind stone.

- Russ Kaniuth

The difference in pectolites that gives larimar its distinctive blue coloring comes from the copper replacing the calcium.

Although the stone was originally found over 100 years ago, it wasn’t until Miguel Fuentes rediscovered it in the mid-1970s that it was introduced into the jewelry world. The stone’s name combines part of his daughter Larissa’s name (Lari-) and the Spanish word for “sea” (mar). Larimar has a notorious love/hate reputation with lapidary artists: love of its beauty and hate for the difficulties of working with this material. Though it’s a relatively hard material, it tends to fracture, chip, flake and break on you at the most inopportune times!