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Continue ShoppingOne of our most commonly asked about stones is none other than sugilite, a stunningly rich purple mineral that few have heard of. This may be due to its discovery only in the last 81 years, making it a new addition to the jewelry market! Sugilite was first found in 1944 by a petrologist in Japan named Ken-ichi Sugi, though the mineral he found was not the violet we know today. Instead, Sugi’s discovery was a small, yellowish stone that wasn’t named as a new discovery until much later. Sometime between 1973 and 1975, however, a thick band of violet sugilite was found in the Kalahari region in Southern Africa, shortly thereafter becoming officially classified as its own mineral. The deposits here are estimated to be somewhere between 2 and 3 billion years old, wherein they formed during a period of intense volcanic activity.
Today, sugilite is known to have gotten its rich purple pigment from a high composition of manganese, which was not present in the specimens found in Japan. Sugilite has also been found in Italy, Canada, New South Wales, and India. However, the African stones continue to be the highest quality, as graded by their color.
Sugilite rests between approximately 5.5 and 7 on the Moh’s hardness scale, making it a decently resilient stone; be warned, however, that the surface of the stone can still scratch if left dusty or mingled with other stones. Its resilience also possibly allows for sugilite jewelry to be mechanically cleaned, though we definitely recommend hand cleaning with a gentle soap and water mixture.
Our final fun fact about sugilite is that it has many other proposed names, depending on the deposit it was mined from and historical culture. One such name is Cybelene, after the Greek story of tragic lovers Cybele and Attis. Cybele, originally an Anatolian goddess, had fallen in love with the young, mortal Attis. On their wedding day, Cybele revealed herself in her full Olympian power to Attis, who went mad at the sight and died of self-inflicted wounds. From his wounds sprung the first violet flowers, hence the association with the purple hues of sugilite.