Prehnite Gemstone

Prehnite with soft green glow and translucent spring colour tones is one of our natural gemstone elements woven into jewelry tapestries of natural colour, projecting a feeling of wooden glade and rolling fields of open grass.

Seemingly filled with radiant light this silicate mineral is new to the world of gemstone jewelry, discovered as recently as the 1800s and found in ancient rocks of Africa and in silica rich rocks of deep oceanic crust.

Prehnite with light seasonal tones is matched to pink quartz crystal in our range of designer jewelry, presenting a cheerful colour gamut that adds life love and energy that is well matched to lighter toned apparel.

How is Prehnite Formed

As a silicate mineral prehnite is notably found in silicon rich basalt rocks deep below the ocean, these oceanic plates cover the deeper part of the Earths crust, and ride upon tremendous currents of heat and energy that shape and have reshaped the surface of our world across countless millennia.

As a metamorphic rock prehnite is born where great sub oceanic plates are formed from deep mantle at “mid-ocean ridge” spreading centres.

Prehnite gemstone is formed at temperatures of around three hundred degrees and several kilo bars of pressure when the rocks that are being formed are dense silicon rich “mafic” rocks.

Found not only in dense oceanic plates, prehnite was discovered in the “Great Karoo” of South Africa by Dutch Colonel Hendrik Von Prehn in 1788, from whom it takes it’s name.

The “Great Karoo” is a large region of exposed rock in South Africa that represents the earliest recognised part of the “Karoo Supergroup” of ancient Pangaea continent rocks.

Formed during the birth of the massive Pangaea supercontinent, the surface strata lifted into this area was subject to high temperatures and pressures, leading to various metamorphic changes that has resulted in the Great Karoo being a special place of crystal formation.

Presentation of Prehnite

Prehnite gemstone in common with rhodonite and jadeite is a type of silicate mineral called an “inosilicate” which comes from the Greek for “ino” meaning chain.

These chain silicates are long single strands of repeating crystal groups closely packed together, with substitutions of other elements such as iron – or aluminium in the case of prehnite, changing the colour and other properties of the gemstone.

In nature prehnite is often found as a crystallised grape like “botryoidal” mass of crystal with notable radiance, green hue and radiant pearly vitreous lustre, and seen seldomly with a cat’s eye effect of reflected concentrated light.

Typically of translucent semi-transparent nature the most notably trait of Prehnite is the famed green colour with a strong inner radiance from scattering of light and uniform tone throughout the crystal.

Softer than quartz with a hardness of around 6 on the Moh’s scale, prehnite is seldom seen in large pendant jewelry due to a tendency to being brittle to knocks and easier to scratch if not careful, this gemstone is more frequently seen in bead jewelry and smaller cabochon ear ring settings.

With large commercial deposits in Africa and Australia, prehnite has turned from a gemstone limited to collections of rare minerals to a crystal for hand crafted jewellers to work into a range of beautiful fashion accessories.

Prehnite Gemstone Jewelry

Prehnite with her buoyant green radiance is a gemstone frequently found in ear ring settings matched to silver surrounds that elegantly add colour and light to apparel.

YAN fashion designs use of prehnite gemstone continues our designers love of the outdoors and nature, weaving her ideas and passion into necklaces, bracelets and ear rings.

Naturally matching well to pink crystal colours, pink quartz and prehnite gemstone together are a combination of gemstones that both project light energy, filled with spring time radiance of airy open forests and breezy grass plains.

Spring concept design pieces are light in colour tone yet filled with a vibrancy of light that adds depth to light clothing while preserving lighter character.

With lighter blue aquamarine, chalcedony shell pendants, pink crystal quartz and light green prehnite gemstone, these ranges of necklaces and bracelets carry spring and summer vibes of idyllic glade and sunlight soaked beaches.

Prehnite is a colourful gemstone with a soft emotional energy, carrying a youthful joy of life that connects well to new colourful styling in simple and beautiful design.

You can see more of our featured prehnite gemstone necklaces and bracelets in our collection gemstone page on our website.