An Amber Elephant

Today’s elephant is very tiny and I believe it is made of Amber.

Amber is not actually a gemstone even though it glows and glistens when polished. Amber is the hardened resin of certain types of ancient trees. Amber is fossilized tree resin.

Amber is fairly common and is an easy material to work with. It typically occurs in various shades of yellow, orange and brown colours. Amber also has a wide range of transparency.

Amber is made into a variety of decorative objects like my tiny elephant. Amber is used in jewellery and it has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.

How can you tell if it’s real amber? You can perform a scratch test. Use your fingernail to gently scratch the stone. Real amber will not leave any scratch marks on the surface of the stone. Imitation amber will show damage from a fingernail scratch.

Amber is found on all the continents of the world except Antarctica. The largest deposits used for jewellery and science are in the Dominican Republic, the Baltic region of Europe and Myanmar.

The best type of amber is Baltic amber, which comes from the shores of the Baltic Sea. Baltic amber is thought to be of the highest quality and this makes it valuable. This natural amber comes in a range of colours, from dark yellows to white.

The Guinness Book of Records states the largest piece of amber ever found weighs 33 pounds 10 ounces. This piece is kept at the Natural History Museum in London.

Amber is one of six eye colours. Rare amber eyes are a yellow-brown colour. An amber eye colour can occur in a variety of shades, from very dark amber to light amber eyes.

Amber is also listed as a November birthstone.

Did you learn something new today? I did. I love being a lifelong learner.

# living life abundantly   # published author