This gorgeous rare sea blue stone is relatively new to the gem world. It is being admired by women like Jennifer Garner, Cameron Diaz and those of us here at Audrée Grace! Larimar was found in the Dominican Republic on an island called La Hispanola.

On November 22, 1916, Father Miguel Domingo asked the Dominican Republic's Ministry of Mining for the permission to exploit the mine of a blue rock he found. However, the request fell through due to lack of funds.

It wasn't until 1974, that the blue stone caught the eye of the Peace Corps volunteer Miguel Mendez. The natives believed the beautiful blue stone was nothing more than a pebble washed up from the sea onto the beach. It was and is still known as the Dolphin Stone and Atlantis Stone. However, Miguel knew it was something special. Miguel eventually had permission to name it, claim it and mine it. He promptly gave the sea blue stone the name Larimar, combining the name of his young daughter's name "Larissa" and the Spanish word "mar," which means sea.

Miguel spent many years preparing for the stone to be mined and having gemologists study the stone. It was discovered that Larimar was very unique because it was part of the pectolite family of crystals. Larimar is so rare, it is only found on one square kilometer on earth. When the volcano erupted on the island, the heat fused copper with the coral reef, creating this beautiful sea blue - sometimes greenish blue - color. Larimar is a throat chakra gemstone and some believe because of its high concentration of copper, it is one of the many great healing stones. Also known for calming, communication and feminine power.

We are proud to be among the few distributors of Larimar and work closely with one of the original partners who helped Miguel mine the Larimar. It continues to be a difficult stone to mine & even today only primitive tools are used to retrieve the stone.

Larimar has a hardness of 4.5-5