Amber is warm against the skin. In contrast, minerals and glass are heavier and cooler than room temperature. Stones like jade, lapis and turquoise feel cool or even cold to the touch, but amber feels warm. This, along with its obvious sunny colour, is why it is known as “sunshine” to Lithuanians.

 True amber is light enough to float in salt water, if not weighed down by other substances (like silver), but it won't float to the top, it floats like soap would in a bathtub. This quality probably helped in its discovery—inhabitants of the Baltic Sea area can still find raw amber washed up on the shore after storms.

 In the middle Ages plagues swarmed across towns, taking a heavy toll of the inhabitants. Fumigation with the smoke of burning amber was recommended as an effective preventive measure. As recorded by Matthaus Praetorius, “During the plague not a single amberman from Gdansk, Klaipeda, Konigsberg or Liepaja died of the disease” (1680).

 Amber smoke is still used in aromatherapy.

Are they safe?

As a safety feature there is a knot before and after each bead, so that even in the extremely unlikely event of the string being torn, no beads are lost and there is no risk of choking, necklaces are secured with a traditional screw clasp, not a sterling silver hook and ring!

 What is amber made from?

Amber is not a stone so therefore warm to the touch, as well as very comfortable and light to wear.

 What is the key ingredient in amber?

The Baltic amber-succinite - is fossilised resin produced by plants 40 – 50 million years ago. In nature the resin would have been used by plants as an antibiotic against viruses, a substance healing cuts or a plaster for wound dressing. Now fossilised, its healing properties have been captured and are release once the resin has been warmed by the skin.