Most of the meteorite used in jewellery comes from the core of an asteroid that broke apart billions of years ago. It is iron and nickel, and it is older than the Earth.

We cut it, set it, and make rings and pendants from it. Three meteorites, each named after the place it landed.

The pattern, and why it cannot be copied

Cut a piece of iron meteorite, polish it and etch it with acid, and a lattice of interlocking bands appears. That is the Widmanstätten pattern, and it is the reason people want meteorite in the first place.

It forms as molten iron and nickel cool, and two minerals, kamacite and taenite, grow into one another along crystal planes. The catch is the speed. The pattern only appears at a cooling rate of a few hundred degrees per million years, and that happens in exactly one place: the core of a large asteroid, insulated by everything above it.

You cannot make that in a workshop. No foundry on Earth can cool metal slowly enough. If a piece carries a true Widmanstätten pattern, it came from space, and it took millions of years to form.

Worth knowing when you are deciding whether to spend R7,590 on a ring.

Muonionalusta

Found in Sweden, near the Muonio River, not far from the Arctic Circle.

At around 4.57 billion years old it is the oldest meteorite known to man, older than the planet it landed on. Four Ice Ages have passed over it since it fell. Only about 40 pieces have ever been found, weighing 250kg in total.

It contains stishovite, a scarce mineral that only forms under the pressure of an impact.

Muonionalusta has a fine, tight pattern and takes a high polish. It is the one we use most.

Seymchan

Found in 1967 in the dry bed of the Hekandue River, in the Magadan district of Russia, and named after the village nearby.

Seymchan is a pallasite, which means parts of it carry olivine crystals suspended in the iron. Around 380kg has been recovered. It is unusually resistant to rust for an iron meteorite, which makes it a sensible choice for something worn every day.

Gibeon

The one that landed closest to home. Gibeon fell in Great Namaqualand, in Namibia, a prehistoric fall first described in 1838, with around 26,000kg recovered across the strewn field.

It is a fine octahedrite, roughly 92% iron and 8% nickel, and it carries one of the finest Widmanstätten patterns of any meteorite. That fineness is why jewellers have worked with Gibeon for decades.

For a workshop in Centurion, it is the closest thing to a local stone we will ever get.

What to expect from a piece

No two are the same. The pattern is a cross-section through a crystal structure, so every cut lands differently. What arrives will not look exactly like the photograph, and that is the point of it.

Which meteorite you get depends on the piece. Where a product names the meteorite, that is what is in it. Where it does not, we use whichever of the three we have on hand. All three are genuine and all three are cut from the same kind of material.

Meteorite is iron. It will mark if you treat it badly. Take it off in the shower and in the sea, dry it if it gets wet, and it will outlast you. Seymchan is the most forgiving of the three.

Looking after it

Wipe it dry. Do not soak it, and keep it away from bleach and chlorine.

If it ever does mark, send it back and we will re-polish it. Every piece we make carries a lifetime guarantee on the workmanship.

See the range

Meteorite Collection — men's rings, necklaces and pendants, handmade in Centurion.

If you want something made to your own design, get in touch and we will work it out with you.