Etched Lake Superior Basalt + Leland Blue Necklace 343

Transport yourself to the shores of the Great Lake Superior with this beautiful piece of etched basalt. The stone features both the outline of Lake Superior and waves. The main end pieces is topped with a Leland Blue bead and sterling silver etched ring. The black cording is adjustable.

BASALT
Basalt is one of the most common rocks found on the shoreline of Lake Superior. It is one of the rocks that makes up the bedrock of the earth's crust! Basalt, simplified, is lava that cooled very quickly on the surface forming very small crystals because of the quick cooling. Basalt ranges from black to bluish-black. The glaciers of the last receding ice age ground down this lava stone breaking it apart in to millions of pieces, only to be polished off by the biggest rock polisher inland, Lake Superior.

LELAND BLUE (ANTIQUE FOUNDRY GLASS) c. 1875-1900
This unique “gem” is a byproduct of the short-lived days of smelting iron ore in Northwest Lower Michigan. The ore from the Upper Peninsula’s Mesabi iron range arrived in Leelanau Co. by schooner. A charcoal made from beech and maple hardwoods plus a local limestone flux were used to refine the ore; the slag byproduct was considered waste and dumped into Lake Michigan. This material ranges in color from black to green, to blue and purple, with the various shades of waterlike blues being the most prized and rare. Under 2% of the slag created was blue, depending on environmental factors. The lucky and determined beachcomber may still find pebbles along the shore.