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Nicedony

7.9 "Labradorite Hand Carved Realistic Skull

7.9 "Labradorite Hand Carved Realistic Skull

$917.15 USD
$917.15 USD
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What you are buying

  • Natural rough only
  • Never dyed or treated
  • Carved from one block
  • Cut by hand, not moulded
See how we make them

A realistic skull worked in labradorite. At 7.9 inches it is among the larger pieces we carve.

The flash across labradorite is not colour in the stone but interference: light bouncing between microscopic lamellae inside the feldspar. It only appears from certain angles, which means a carved form reveals it in passes as it turns.

The skull is the hardest test of a carver's eye, because everyone already knows what it should look like. The passages that take the longest are the ones you notice least: the transition from temple to cheekbone, and the way the teeth meet.

Item ID 5100084
Material 100% natural labradorite
Size 7.9 × 5.6 × 6.2 in (200 × 143 × 158 mm)
Weight see photographs

View full details

Ships worldwide. This piece is held at our workshop and ships internationally.

  • One of a kind

    Every carving is cut from its own block of rough. The photographs on this page show the exact piece you will receive — not a sample from the same batch.

  • Natural stone, untreated

    100% natural stone, never dyed or reconstituted. Veins, inclusions and small shifts in colour are how the material formed; they are marks of origin rather than faults.

  • Carved by hand

    Cut, shaped and polished by hand. Proportions differ a little from piece to piece because each one follows the block it came out of.

  • Checked and packed

    Hand-inspected before dispatch and shipped in shockproof packaging.

The Material

Labradorite — The Trapped Aurora

Grey until it is not; the flash is interference, not colour.

Labradorite was described from the Labrador coast in 1770, and Inuit tradition there holds that the northern lights were once trapped inside the rocks along that shore until a warrior struck them with his spear and released most — but not all — of the light.

The account is a remarkably good description of the physics. The flash is not pigment but interference: light bouncing between microscopic lamellae inside the feldspar, visible only from certain angles. A carved form reveals it in passes as it turns.

Something Held Back
Northern Light

Something Held Back

Labradorite is traditionally associated with what is not immediately apparent in a person, and with the value of not showing everything at once.

Turn it slowly rather than displaying it fixed.

Transition
Between Places

Transition

Its reputation is specifically as a stone of thresholds and change of state rather than of arrival.

Keep it through the move, the change, the interval.

Keeping Your Own Weather
Shield

Keeping Your Own Weather

Traditionally credited with maintaining a person's own state in draining company.

Carried rather than displayed, by most accounts.

Perspective
Angle of View

Perspective

Because the flash only appears from certain positions, the stone is read as an argument about where you are standing.

Move rather than moving it when it looks dull.

Why We Carve Skulls
The Form

Why We Carve Skulls

The skull is the oldest symbol of transformation: what remains, what endures, what is left when everything temporary has gone. Carved in stone it reads less as death and more as clarity.

Turn it to face you when you want to be honest; turn it outward when you want to be left alone.

Our belief

Cut, not created

We believe a carving should carry the memory of the stone it came from. Every piece is cut from natural material, one at a time, and none of them repeat.