Selenite Crystal Bracelet Grade 5A

Selenite is a variety of gypsum - hydrated calcium sulfate, CaSO₄·2H₂O - and one of the softest minerals worn as a bead, Mohs 2, soft enough to mark with a fingernail. The bracelet form is usually satin spar, the fibrous gypsum whose parallel fibres give a moving, silky sheen.

That sheen is chatoyancy - light running along the fine fibres, a band of soft white light that travels as the stone turns, like the sheen on satin or on still water. The body is translucent white to near-clear.

Two things follow from gypsum’s softness and its water content: selenite scratches very easily, and it dissolves in water. It asks the most careful, driest handling of any stone in this collection - the care below is not optional.

Asked often

Why is it called selenite?
From the Greek selene, the moon, for the soft moonlike sheen that runs across the polished stone. The name is old, and the likeness to moonlight is the reason for it.

Why is it so soft?
Selenite is gypsum, Mohs 2 - one of the softest minerals worn, soft enough to scratch with a fingernail. That softness is its nature, and the reason it is handled gently.

Can it get wet?
No - keep it dry. Gypsum dissolves in water, so soaking will cloud, pit, or break down the surface. Selenite is wiped only with a dry cloth.

How do I care for it?
Dry cloth only. Keep it from all water and damp, from scent and lotion, and from knocks and scratches - it is very soft. Store it apart from harder beads, and remove it before washing, swimming, and bathing.

1. Worn on either wrist, over the hand, on a durable elastic cord.
2. Turn it slowly in the light - the satin sheen travels across the stone.
3. Wipe with a dry cloth only.
4. Keep it from all water and damp; store it apart from harder stones, which will scratch it.

Selenite is the softest, most water-sensitive stone in this collection. Kept dry and handled gently, the satin sheen holds; this is a stone for careful wear, not for the shower or the sink.

Dry cloth only. Keep from all water, damp, scent, and abrasion. Store apart from harder beads. Remove before any contact with water.

• Stone: Selenite · satin-spar gypsum
• Composition: CaSO₄·2H₂O · hydrated calcium sulfate
• Hardness: Mohs 2 (very soft)
• Character: Translucent white · travelling satin sheen
• Treatment: None · natural
• Band: Durable elastic cord
• Origin: Morocco
• Care: Dry cloth only · keep from all water

The great selenite crystals are among the largest single crystals on Earth - the Cave of Crystals at Naica in Mexico holds gypsum beams many metres long, grown over hundreds of thousands of years in mineral-rich water. The same mineral, ground and fired, is the gypsum of plaster, and the alabaster carved since antiquity.

For its moonlike sheen selenite was named for the moon by the Greeks and read as a stone of light and calm across cultures - named here as what people believed. The sheen is fibre and light; what it quiets is the wearer’s.