Shoto Sterling OE-19-001 Quartz cat's eye

With the centuries-old experience of the Zuni and Navajo Indians, all silver parts are traditionally handcrafted in the southwest of the United States.
The processed silver has a fineness of at least 925/1000 and comes from certified American mines, which are subject to the control of the American environmental authorities.

Deep contrasts are created by oxidation and subsequent polishing.
High-standing parts thus regain a smooth, shiny surface, joints, grooves and recesses remain dark.
Each silver part is processed individually and by hand.  Thus each part becomes individual and unique.

We process exclusively high-quality semi-precious stones in selected qualities, up to "AA" and "AAA" grades.
The processed stones and minerals are sawn, processed and polished in certified companies in Germany, North America, Thailand and India.

For ethical and political reasons we consciously refrain from purchasing semi-precious stones and minerals from China.

In some designs we use prehistoric mammoth ivory beads that are at least 4,500 years old.
We source our mammoth beads from Alaska, where the Inuit dig them out of the ice and process them.

The pearls we process from petrified dinosaur bones in precious stone quality are among the rarest fossils in the world.
They come from dinosaurs who lived on the Colorado Plateau in the southwest of the USA about 150 million years ago.

Our current "highlight" are bands with a central sphere made of "Campo del Cielo" meteorite. This meteorite originates from the asteroid belt and is as old as our solar system (4.2 - 4.3 billion years).
The design, the compilation and the manufacturing of all jewellery parts is done in passionate manual work in Germany.
Problem-free reordering: Shoto Streling manufactures desired styles and sizes within max. one to two weeks, provided that sufficient material is available.  (currently in over 95% of all cases)

Falcon's eye is a microcrystalline, fibrous and opaque variety of quartz.
It crystallizes in mircoscopically small crystals into minearl pieces similar to agate.
In contrast to agate only the colours dark blue, blue grey and blue green appear.
In addition, the incorporation of a silicate, the hornblende a silky shine, the so-called cat's eye effect.
Falcon eyes are found mainly in South Africa and Western Australia.

Meteorites are witnesses of the origin of our solar system. Most of them originate from the 4.6 billion year old asteroid belt which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, at a distance of 300 to 650 million kilometres.

The Gibeon meteorite struck near the city of Gibeon in Namibia over a million years ago.
The fragments of the meteorite are distributed in an elliptical stray field of 275 kilometres length and 100 kilometres width.

The crystal structure of this meteorite is a typical example of fine octahedron and the Widmanstätten pattern is appreciated for its beauty.

Sterling silver is an alloy of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. The fineness is therefore 925/1000.

The name refers to the British pound sterling, sterling silver was the coin material of the early English silver pennies, the so-called "sterlings".

The term "Sterling" derives from "e(a)sterling" (coming from the East) and denotes early penny coins imported from mainland Europe to England. Before 1200 the term was also used in France.

Sterling silver is used today for silver jewellery, coins, medals, cups, postage stamps, cutlery, flutes and lacquering of light metal rims. It is harder compared to pure silver. The colour is slightly redder compared to pure silver. Molten pure silver can absorb up to 20 times its own volume of oxygen, which suddenly escapes under a "splattering" noise during solidification and tears open the surface. The copper content reduces the risk of spraying and increases the hardness of the silver.

Source: Wikipedia