Fossil wood, black and weightless. The old stone of mourning.
The aesthetic
Jet is fossilised wood, compressed over millions of years into a dense black material light enough to feel wrong in the hand for its size. It takes a deep warm polish, quite unlike the cold flat black of onyx, and will hold a static charge like amber. Whitby jet was mined on the English coast and became the material of Victorian mourning jewellery, worn for years at a time.
The dynamic
Jet is associated with protection and with grief, traditionally carried through mourning as a stone for carrying weight rather than lifting it.
Some variations
- whitby jet
- spanish jet
- carved jet
- jet beads