Pools of Light in the Winter Solstice: Rock Crystal

The first time I saw a pools of light necklace, it was around the neck of a friend of mine. They glowed. "What IS that?" I asked her, leaning in. "Oh, isn't it cool? They're called pools of light. When the light hits them, they make a halo of light around your neck."

We'd both studied nineteenth-century literature, so it didn't surprise me that these orbs of rock crystal were popular in the nineteenth century, given their love of symbolic jewelry, reaching their height in the Art Deco jewelry of the 1930s and '40s. Little did I know this was also my introduction to Isadora's, where my friend was a regular customer. 

On occasion, I'd go with her to the store, and they'd always let me hold a pools of light necklace. How cold they were! Truly, I understood why the root of the word "crystal" is "krystallos," which means "ice." And how rare: undrilled rock crystal is considerably more valuable than its drilled counterparts, and is often wrapped with silver to hold each orb. (My favorites have floral motifs etched in the silver.) Moreover, the Chinese believed that each orb's "chi" would be lost if drilled or damaged. I could feel that energy the first time I put on such a necklace: coldness and light, pulsing.

Real rock crystal is quartz, but perfectly colorless and resilient. Like a flawless diamond, its value is defined by absence: of color, of intrusion. There is such a difference between crystal and glass. Like winter, crystal is elemental and connects us to the earth. Indeed, rock crystal posses piezoelectricity; when pressed, it creates a charge, so these crystals are also used in clocks, watches . . . anything requiring precise regulation of electrical frequencies.

 Observe light and dark embodied in our Art Deco black and white pools of light necklace.