Eye Keep Marbles of Ireland and Pearl, Sterling Silver Collection

Eye Keep Marble & Pearl Our Eye Keep is made from the finest gemstones of Connemara Kilkenny Cork or Ulster Marble and Cultured Pearls and an Irish Sterling Silver ring to keep and hold your glasses.  The ring has been stamped by the Dublin Assay Office and this hallmark is your guarantee of quality craftsmanship and quality materials. A little piece of history… Connemara Marble (Green ) is recognised as the iconic gemstone of Ireland.  It is found in Connemara which is in the western part of County Galway, Ireland.  Its use in jewellery is considered an indigenous industry and the quarrying of Connemara marble is a centuries-old initiative.  The marble is rare and beautiful and is found on the wild Atlantic coastline.  This Irish marble is as unique and as spectacular as the Irish coastline itself with colours of greens, lights and darks, sepias blacks and whites swirling through it.  No two pieces are the same, and have been formed by sediment deposit in the shallow primal sea over 600 million years ago. As well as being hugely popular in Celtic jewellery, Connemara marble has been used to adorn many buildings, especially churches and cathedrals namely Galway Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral in London and the Senate Chamber and Senate Post Office in the State Capital Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America. Kilkenny Marble (Black) is a beautiful dark fine-grained carboniferous limestone found in County Kilkenny in the south-east of Ireland.  It is black in colour and speckled with light-coloured fossilised remains of sea creatures that became compressed into the seabed over 350 million years ago.  It has been quarried just south of Kilkenny since the 17^th Century and has been used to adorn buildings of note as well as pave the city with highly polished flagstones which would glisten when wet, giving Kilkenny the name of the Marble City. As well as being used in buildings around Kilkenny, Kilkenny marble has been used to make the headstone of Daniel O’Connell in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, the altar of St. Patrick’s Church, Belfast and the plinth of the 2015 tomb of Richard III of England in Leicester Cathedral. Cork Marble (Red) comes from County Cork in the south of Ireland.  It dates back to the Carboniferous period, 350 million years ago and is described as a rare limestone with pebbles and the remains of fossilised sea creatures running through it.  Its colour ranges from grey, stained with varying shades of red from iron oxide, set in a deep red matrix. Cork Marble got its colour when the grey limestone reef beneath the warm shallow sea covering the region was buried beneath red sediment carried to the area by currents. Examples of Cork Red Marble can be found in the Museum Building at Trinity College, Dublin and Cobh Cathedral, County Cork. Ulster Marble (White) is a chalky white marble from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland.  The marble is described as white but is more like an off white or deep cream colour.  This marble is so coloured due to the heavy deposits of chalk created by the shells of tiny sea creatures called coccolithophores laid down during the Cretaceous period (66-145 million years ago) and through a process of volcanic activity, the chalk-white limestone has been metamorphosed by heat to form marble. Examples of Ulster marble can be found in the Museum Building at Trinity College Dublin and in the Rotunda of the National Museum of Ireland.  It is also much in demand in fine jewellery making. Cultured Pearl A Pearl is a hard-glistening iridescent object formed within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusc and has been highly valued as a gemstone and object of beauty for centuries.  The most valuable pearls are natural pearls and they form spontaneously in the wild, are extremely expensive and rare.  The development of cultured pearls which are human creations made these beautiful gemstones more widely available and now 99% of all pearls sold today are cultured pearls.

Sterling Silver

Silver has a long history.  The first evidence of silver mining dates back to 3000 BC to Turkey and Greece.  Today most of the world’s supplies of silver comes from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Bolivia. In Ireland, the Silvermines in Co. Tipperary is unique amongst Irish mines for two reasons.  Firstly, it contains argentiferous lead and commercial amounts of copper, zinc, barytes and sulphur.  Secondly, for its longevity. Mining at Silvermines dates back as far as 1298 when Italian miners came in search of silver.  The last working mine was closed in 1993. Size: 61 – 64cm (24 – 25in) sizes vary, see below 25mm Sterling Silver Teardrop Ring Colour: Green and White Please note: All beads in the Marble & Pearl Collection are handmade so there are variations in sizes between each piece.  Each Marble & Pearl Eye Keep is made as an individual piece of jewellery. If you are interested in a piece and it is out of stock on the website please contact us and we can make one to order.