Stones & Materials

Brazil, first

Nearly every stone in this collection begins in the same place. Brazil produces more amethyst and more citrine than any country on earth — violet quartz from the great basalt geodes of the south, golden and green quartz from the mineral belts of Minas Gerais. Stone by stone, this is a Brazilian collection.

The southern geodes sit inside volcanic rock that is around 135 million years old — basalt left behind when South America and Africa came apart. The crystals inside them came later, and came slowly. Studies of those geodes put the temperature at which the quartz actually grew between 40 and 80 degrees: warm water, not fire, working through a cavity the lava had already left empty.

Yurua begins with the stone itself: its colour, its cut, the light it holds and the feeling it brings to a piece. Natural variation is part of the character of gemstone jewellery. No two stones need to look perfectly identical to feel like they belong together.

Amethyst

The violet one. Amethyst forms inside hollows in old volcanic rock, grown out of mineral-bearing water over an unhurried stretch of geological time, and Brazil's southern geodes are among the richest sources of it anywhere. The colour is iron and time, and nothing else.

Amethyst is the stone people reach for when they want to slow down, and have been for centuries. Which is a reasonable thing to ask of something that took this long to appear.

The current collection includes amethyst stud earrings and an amethyst pendant necklace.

Citrine

Citrine is the golden one. It is the same mineral as amethyst — quartz — separated only by heat and the iron held inside it. Much of the world's citrine begins its life violet and turns honey-gold, either slowly in the earth or through careful heat treatment by a cutter. Yurua is plain about that: where citrine has been heated to reach its colour, we treat it as part of the stone's material story, not something to hide.

It is a stone with transformation written into its chemistry, which is perhaps why it has always been the stone of new beginnings — the one people choose when something is starting.

Yurua's citrine pendant uses a clean rectangular cut that puts the colour at the centre of the piece.

Green amethyst

Green amethyst is the green one, and the least known. Its proper name is prasiolite. Quartz again — same family, a third colour, so pale it reads almost as light rather than colour. Natural prasiolite is uncommon; most of what reaches the world begins as Brazilian amethyst and is heat-treated to green. That is the route most commercial green amethyst takes, and it is the tradition of colour Yurua draws from when this stone appears in the collection.

Settings and metals

Yurua works in two metals, and only two.

18 karat gold. Seventy-five percent pure gold, hallmarked 750. It is the standard used across most of Europe for fine jewellery, and it is what we use for the citrine pendant, the amethyst pendant and the green-and-violet drop earrings. Solid gold, not plated and not filled — which means the colour is the metal itself and cannot wear away from the surface over time.

Sterling silver. 92.5 percent pure silver, hallmarked 925, used for the amethyst stud earrings and the citrine ring. Sterling develops a patina with wear and air; a soft polishing cloth returns it whenever you would like it brighter.

We name the metal on every product page. Where a piece is gold, it is 18 karat gold throughout — setting, chain and findings.

What we can and cannot tell you

We can tell you where a stone comes from, what it is made of, how old the ground is, and what people have worn it for. We have not had our own stones dated, so we describe the geology rather than claiming an age for any individual piece.

The associations we mention are cultural and very old, and we offer them as inspiration and personal ritual. They are not medical claims, and no piece of jewellery diagnoses, treats or cures any condition.