Take One Part Tree Resin, One Unlucky Mosquito, And Wait, And Wait...

If you wait long enough, say about 300 million years or so, you'll end up with an extraordinary piece of golden Amber jewelry!  Amber is fossilized tree resin.  It started its life as the soft and sticky tree resin that we've all encountered from time to time.  Over time, the tree resin becomes one with the ground and takes on its new form as Amber by means of the high temperature and high pressure created by the overlying sediment and a great deal of time!

Pliny the Elder wrote about Amber in his "Naturalis Historia" collection.  He may have been the first person to determine that Amber was at one point in a liquid state.  He realized this after examining many different examples of Amber and noticing a startling discovery within some of them.  In some of the Amber pieces an insect had been amazingly preserved within the prehistoric tree resin.

Today pieces of Amber with bugs preserved within are treasured... and perhaps even inspired part of the Jurassic Park Movie.

The oldest example of Amber found to date has been determined to be 320 million years old!  Amber is believed to have been traded along the Baltic Sea as far back as 2000 years ago.

Ninety percent of todays Amber still comes from the Baltic Sea Area in Russia.

Well, that's all for now.

Your Friend in the Jewelry Business!

Mark Grader

Grader Jewelers, Inc.

Groton, Norwich, Waterford

www.gradergems.com

www.facebook.com/graderjewelers