K2 granite

Granite from the foot of K2, with azurite raindrops.

White ground, blue dots. On a strand of K2 granite the beads read like small maps: chalky white rock salted with black grains, mica catching the light as you turn it, and round patches of azurite blue that look painted on. Some orbs are the size of a pinhead, some as wide as a fingernail, and they fade softly into the rock at their edges rather than stopping at a line. No two beads match. That is most of the appeal.

Where it comes from

The material comes from the Skardu area of northern Pakistan, in the Karakoram, near the foot of the peak the Great Trigonometrical Survey of British India recorded as K2, the second peak measured in that range. Thomas Montgomerie made the first survey of the Karakoram, and the shorthand stuck to a mountain of 8,611 meters, second on Earth after Everest. The rock is granite: a light-colored igneous rock formed by slow crystallization of magma below the surface, here quartz, albite and minor mica, confirmed by x-ray diffraction. The blue arrived afterward. Azurite formed as a secondary oxidation product once the granite had solidified, seeping along grain boundaries into orbs a few millimeters to about two centimeters across. In the trade it goes by names it does not deserve, K2 Jasper and raindrop azurite. It is granite, and our tags say so. Our strands are cut in Jaipur, India, and chosen strand by strand in Cupertino, California.

What tradition says

Tradition calls K2 a stone of balance. That is the whole of the claim as it reaches us, repeated in crystal circles without much elaboration, and we pass it along the same way: belief, not fact. People who keep the beads speak of balance in their own terms, and the word has stayed attached to a rock that holds two unlike things in one piece. Nothing in it is a promise, and none of it takes the place of anything else. If the idea appeals to you, hold it the way traditions are best held: loosely, and without asking it to do work.

These are beliefs people have held about the stone, told as tradition. They are not claims, and not advice.

How makers use it

This one goes into men's and unisex lines and onto the workbenches of designers who like plain metal and rough texture. A faceted marquise at 15 by 45mm hangs well from a heavy chain or a leather cord. Rectangles at 11 by 15mm sit between darker stones as spacers, and pyramids give a shoulder of white to catch light beside the blue. Since no two beads carry their orbs the same way, sorting a strand before you set it is worth the time. A stronger strand has a clean white ground with several saturated blue orbs on each bead and mica that glints as you tilt it. We list twelve strands.

Looking after it

Keep it in necklaces and earrings. The feldspar in the granite scratches and dulls in bracelets, where beads knock against a desk all day. Wash in warm soapy water with a soft brush and dry it well. Keep acids away from it, including household cleaners, since they attack the blue azurite.

Sources: K2 Granite: A white granite with azurite - AKA K2 Jasper, KNJ-FWR - Azurite, Granite, K2, Granite: Igneous Rock - Pictures, Definition & More