Luminous & Earthy: the summer magic of Peridot

Peridot has always meant more to me than just a gemstone — it’s my oldest daughter’s birthstone, as well as a handful of very close friends and, it always reminds me where we are in the season of summer.

I love that I think of my daughter and my friends when I think of the Peridot birthstone.

The vibrant limey green color, so bright it almost glows, is exactly how summer feels to me in August: still full, but with a quiet ache underneath because you can feel it starting to slip away.

Unlike most gems born in the earth's crust, peridot forms deep in the mantle, carried up to us through powerful volcanic rock — something precious and bright rising from far below the surface.

While we were in Hawaii recently, my daughters found a small bit of beach littered with the green glow of olivine, a form of the volcanic peridot, in the raw.

The ancient Egyptians called peridot the “gem of the sun” and believed it protected against fear and darkness.

That luminous, protective quality feels so resonant when you consider how peridot brings warmth into the world, bridging ancient skyward legends with the grounding beauty of raw volcanic earth.

Every piece I make with peridot holds onto a little of that feeling — bright, and a little bittersweet.