Larimar was officially discovered, quite by accident, by American Peace Corp employee, Norma Rilling and native Dominican, Miguel Mendez, in 1975. Rilling named the gemstone 'Larimar' after his daughter, Larissa and the Spanish word for the sea, mar. Larimar had initially been discovered, in 1916, by Father Miguel Domingo Guertes Loren. Father Loren, who was from the Barahona Parish, requested permission to explore the mine, but for an unknown reason, the request was not granted.
I was introduced to Larimar by a jeweler at the Jersey shore last summer. He had only two pendants in this magnificant blue stone. I purchased one pendant, returned to the store to purchase the other, but it had been sold. At that time, I had begun collecting natural gemstones and natural gemstone jewelry, but in my travels of the internet, had never happened upon Larimar.
This beautiful blue gemstone is still mined by hand, by native Dominicans, on a mountainside near the city of Barahona. Excavation is tedious, dangerous and can be deadly. Volcanic blue Larimar tends to be the most costly but personally prefer the somewhat lighter shades of blue. Other than the jewelry store at the Jersey shore, I have not found Larimar anywhere except the internet.
Recently I turned my 'hobby' of collecting natural gemstone jewelry into a webstore (website can be found in my bio) and included several of my coveted Larimar pieces to share with others.
If you love the beauty of natural gemstones, truly amazing specimens 'born of our earth', search the internet for Jasper, Agate, Rhodochrosite, Malachite, Charoite, and my favorite, Larimar.
Leise
gemography.com
Systems Integration Analyst for a Fortune 500 company, a Mom, Christian (NOT born again), avid reader, writer (published two books), with many creative interests and enjoy political commentary and debate.
