Description
About the Leland Blue Heart Necklace Heart of Lake Michigan Stone by Shoreline Gems
This Leland Blue Heart Necklace shown in dark blue is strung on an 18 inch sterling silver chain. The Leland Blue stone measures approximately 1 inch and available in light blue, medium blue or dark blue. This isn’t the “Blue Heart of the Ocean” jewel that was tossed over the railing of Titanic, but it is the Leland Blue Heart Necklace of Lake Michigan that will be cherished forever. Due to the nature of the Leland Bluestone, no two necklaces will be alike in color and pattern. The artisan will make every effort to choose a Leland Blue stone to match your color request.
The Leland Bluestone is slag (a by-product from an iron smelting operation) and highly prized by jewelry designers and rock hounds alike. It is a popular Northern Michigan collectible that is forged by man and colored and shaped by nature. Leland Blue is not really a stone, but glass left over as a byproduct of smelting iron during the 1870′s. As a cauldron of hot iron melts, limestone is tossed in as a flux, and the molten dirt floats to the top and is skimmed off to form glass. Then, as the story goes, the chunks of glass were used as fill for break-walls or dumped anywhere, often in Lake Michigan. Through the decades it has been tumbled by the waves of Lake Michigan. Although now scarce, the Leland Bluestone makes beautiful recycled jewelry and art.