Lapis Lazuli is not one mineral. It is a rock, made up of several, and that is the first thing worth knowing because it explains everything you see in a piece of it. 

The blue is lazurite, a mineral containing sulphur, and it is lazurite that gives the stone its colour. The white flecks are calcite. The gold specks are pyrite, fool's gold trapped in the rock as it formed. Two pieces from the same deposit can differ wildly in all three, which is why one might be almost solid blue and the next heavily speckled with white, and why the colour of the stone runs from pale denim through to a deep, almost violet blue.

It has the longest history of any stone on this site. Lapis has been mined at Sar-e-Sang in the mountains of Badakhshan, in what is now Afghanistan, for something like six thousand years, and that deposit still produces much of the best material today. It reached Egypt early and was worked into scarabs and amulets, ground into the eye paint that lined the eyes on royal coffins, and carved into the small figures found in tombs. 

It went to Mesopotamia and was one of the stones used in jewellery and inlay in the royal tombs at Ur. 

In the medieval period it was ground for paint again, and the pigment was called ultramarine, meaning beyond the sea, because it was imported from far across the water. Ultramarine was the most expensive pigment in a painter's box, more costly than gold by weight, and it was reserved for the most important parts of a picture, which is why the Virgin's robe in so much Renaissance painting is that exact blue.

The stone is found elsewhere now as well, in Chile, Russia, Pakistan, Canada and Italy, and the trade distinguishes grades carefully. A deep, even blue with little calcite is the top grade and reaches the market as stone sold by weight. Material with more white and gold is common and considerably cheaper, and the flecks that the best pieces are dense with blue through are what most of the ornamental freeforms on the market are cut from. 

On the hardness scale the stone sits anywhere from five and a half to six depending on which minerals are in the piece, since lazurite, calcite and pyrite are not the same hardness and the softer parts wear first.

Traditionally associated with

Lapis lazuli has a tradition, and it is a long one. It is traditionally associated with the sky, with night and with what is above us, and the association sits in line with it's history: the Egyptian use, the Mesopotamian use and the pigment all point the same way, to the stone being valued for the blue of a clear sky or a deep night. It is also one of the stones most often worked into objects of significance rather than ornament, which is where the modern associations around it began. 

How I'd keep it

Keep it well away from acids, and this matters more with lapis than with most stones. The sulphur in lazurite reacts to acid and to household cleaners, and a piece exposed to them will go dull and can be damaged permanently. Wash it in cool water with a soft cloth if it needs it, dry it straight away, and never scrub it.

The three minerals in the stone are different hardnesses, so the calcite flecks and the pyrite will show wear before the lazurite does. Keep it out of direct sun and away from anything harder in a drawer. 

A freeform wants a shelf or a desk where it can be turned to face the light.

What to watch for

Lapis is dyed constantly, and the dye is used to even out material that is more white and gold than a seller would like. The test is the usual one, and you look at the calcite flecks. On a dyed piece the white flecks will often be tinted blue or will sit in a blue haze around them, because the dye soaks into the softer calcite first. Genuine lapis has calcite that stays white. 

Reconstituted material pressed from powder and resin is also sold, and it holds together with visible grain and no real depth. Also worth knowing is that dyed blue jasper and dyed howlite are both sold as lapis, and neither contains any lazurite at all.

In the shop

The Lapis Lazuli Freeforms start at £30, and each is a one-off, so the freeform in the photograph is the one that arrives. The pieces I carry show the whole rock. Deep blue lazurite with the white calcite veining and scattered gold pyrite through it. I also have it as a part of an Orgonite for £10.

Prefer to wear yours? I also have it as a feather earrings, pendant or the whole set. Prices start at £65 depending on your choice of item. 

Free UK shipping on orders over £50. Everything is sent from Luton, and collection is available if you're local.