A stunning black jet necklace looks great.

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In the Netherlands (Enkhuizen) is an open-air museum where you see restored and rebuilt houses and villages, originating from the small cities around the IJsselmeer or Southern Sea as it is called centuries ago. We have visited this beautiful Southern Sea Museum a few times in the past. But this time we have a special encounter with an older lady, wearing black jet jewelry.

The lady washes clothes in a large laundry tube outside her ‘house’. She talks to another lady repairing clothes. I notice that both ladies wear beautiful black gemstone necklaces but the two necklaces differ. One necklace is made of garnets and has a beautiful silver clasp. The other one is just as beautiful but lacks the luster.

Of course, I ask the ladies about those necklaces, and at the end of the conversation, I know all about this beautiful, but rather unknown gemstone. I like to pass this story to you!

Wearing black jet jewelry or garnet jewelry?

First I want to explain that the custom I tell you about in this blog post, is about the Dutch traditional way of life. I am sure that in some other countries, they have the same customs, but this is how it works in the Netherlands.

The lady washing the clothes is a widow and she has trouble getting things going. The other lady repairing the clothes is her daughter. When her father died her mother had to ‘go in mourning’. That means that she wears black clothes for at least a year (I mean all black, even the underwear) and when time passes by she can add other colors to her wardrobe. According to the custom she does not wear very expensive jewelry or no jewelry at all.

The washing lady has a beautiful garnet necklace, an expensive faceted garnet necklace with a silver clasp. She gives it to her daughter when her husband passes away because she is not allowed to wear it anymore. That is difficult because the garnet necklace is a wedding present from her husband. She starts wearing the inherited black jet jewelry of her mother.

What is this gemstone anyway?

Black jet is black, very black or deep dark brown, and sometimes with sparkles of pyrite. Like amber, pearls, and coral the black jet is an organic gemstone. It is wood, a fossil wood 180 million years old. The wood comes from the?Araucariaceae family and due to the pressure during times, it becomes jet. But the fossilization is not completed so the wood structure is visible under a microscope. And if we wait a few million years more it is coal.

In the fossilization process, the carbon is pressed out. When that happens in saltwater it is rather hard and called ‘jet’. People call this great stone a gemstone because of its beauty. You can do nothing else with this gemstone than carve it and make beautiful jewelry of it.

It burns!!!

Jet burns when you throw it in the fire. That is your proof that it is a real jet, but by doing that your proof is damaged and gone forever. You ruin the black jet too when you clean it with water!

You find black jets in Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, the USA, and India. But the most famous mine is in Whitby/United Kingdom. There is no jet mine in the Netherlands, so the black jet jewelry of the lady in mourning comes to the Southern Sea area by trade. Or… when you are lucky you find it on a Dutch beach, floated there from England.

Why mourning jewelry?

The easiest answer to that question is that the jet is black, the color of mourning. It is rather cheap for a widow to come by (that is in those days). It has no luster, so suitable for a grieving lady.

But here is more to it.

People believe that a jet is capable of tearing all negative energy and energy that does not belong to you, out of your body. For that: it filters all negative thoughts, feelings, and memories out of your mind. And helps to let all the negativity go and to get the strength to go on with your life.

For these features, a jet is an excellent gem to make this black gem jewelry or mourning jewelry. But also rosaries of a black jet are popular. You recognize the real jet when you rub a jet (like amber) on a piece of woolen cloth. It sticks to a piece of paper after rubbing for a few moments.

Black jets are popular for ages and ages.

This gemstone has very trending since the end of the 19th?century. Since the gem is rather rare there is not enough black jet to meet the demand. So people use black glass as a replacement. This glass is also called ‘French Jet’ and even after rubbing fiercely, it stays cold, not as a black jet that becomes warm.

In the Stone Age (around 3000 BC) people love black jets and they make black jets of jewelry of the material they find, like pendants or beads that archeologists find in the Dutch hunebeds (stone grave tombs from the Stone Age). Most of this jet comes from the Whitby mine in England.

Not only the Vikings loved it, but also the Romans. Since the Middle Ages, women have used black jets as mourning jewelry and for making rosaries. In Santiago de Compostela, a famous Spanish pilgrimage site they process a lot of black jets in those days.

Black jet jewelry in the Victorian Age

In 1861 Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria dies at the age of 42 years old. Queen Victoria is devastated and decides to wear from that day on only black clothing and jewelry, mostly black jet from?Whitby. And the only option for the nobility and high classes in England is to follow her example.

Black Jet jewelry in the Roaring Twenties.

In the 1920s long bead necklaces, mostly made of a black jet were popular among young women. Black Jet is light and without any problem, you can wear multiple-strand necklaces from your neck until below your waist. Also, they decorated clothing, hats, and shawls with a black jet in those days.

Too beautiful to wear in mourning time

Black jet gemstones are beautiful, nicely carved, lightweight, warm when you touch them, natural material, and eco-friendly. What do you want more? It has become a tradition to wear black jet jewelry only when you are in mourning around the 17th century, but black jet is way too beautiful to wear only in these difficult times. Although it brings comfort and sends away negative thoughts I’ll bet you can use that at other times too.

This gorgeous gemstone necklace not only looks great when you are in mourning but also on other occasions, with an awesome outfit you look stunning with such a necklace. Maybe it is a bit hard for you to choose the right necklace that makes you look stunning. Or what earrings should you wear to accentuate your beautiful eyes? And what bracelets make your hips look a bit smaller? All questions… but FlorenceJewelshop does have the answers. All gathered in a great PDF, where you can find how to accentuate your best features, by wearing the right jewelry.

Use this link to go to the free download of the PDF https://florencejewelshop.com/accentuate-your-best-features-lp/

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