IONA STONES anyone know the lore?
SWalker706
I am using stones from Iona in jewelry that I design, make and sell in the
US mostly for a Scots-American audience. The green marble from the old
quarry is what is usually called "Iona Stone". I use this but also use the
red, green, white and black granitite sort of stone that is found on the
south end of the island. The bedrock around Columba's bay is made of this
material.
I once heard this material refered to as "bloodstone" but the silversmith
working on the Ross of Mull referes to it as "serpantine". In the US
serpantine refers to a very different, much softer material.
Everthing connected with Iona has some sort of legend or lore attached to
it. My visits have been too brief to learn much about any traditional
beliefs about this stone, but since the stone is so beautiful and
plentiful I feel certain that the imaginative people of this part of the
world must have found some special use or meaning for it.
My jewelry, including some peices that use the Iona stones can be seen at
http://www.underbridge.com/market/walker/walker.htm
Thanks for any help.
Tapadh leibh,
Steve
Jack Campin
swalk...@aol.com (SWalker706) writes:
> I am using stones from Iona in jewelry that I design, make and sell in
> the US mostly for a Scots-American audience.
Great. First we have a road construction company from Texas wanting to
demolish entire Scottish islands and mountains, now we have New Agers
trying to get into the act as well.
> The green marble from the old quarry is what is usually called "Iona
> Stone". I use this but also use the red, green, white and black granitite
> sort of stone that is found on the south end of the island. The bedrock
> around Columba's bay is made of this material.
The historically interesting stuff occurs only in tiny pebbles broken away
from a small and obscure seam. It is not quarryable, thank god.
> I once heard this material refered to as "bloodstone" but the silversmith
> working on the Ross of Mull
...another New Age white settler...
> referes to it as "serpantine".
> Everthing connected with Iona has some sort of legend or lore attached
> to it. My visits have been too brief to learn much about any traditional
> beliefs about this stone,
But that didn't stop you grabbing a truckload of it to sell to people who
didn't have a clue, did it?
> but since the stone is so beautiful and plentiful I feel certain that
> the imaginative people of this part of the world must have found some
> special use or meaning for it.
Not the common stuff they didn't. There is a very specific tradition
going back centuries about the kind you missed. There are many good books
about Iona - Mairi Macarthur's being the most recent and archaeologically
and sociologically clued-up - that could have told you exactly what you
needed to know about this, and you couldn't be arsed putting your hand in
your pocket to buy any of them. Sheesh. (And the tradition in question
was not just restricted to that part of the world - all northern Europe
shared it).
> My jewelry, including some peices that use the Iona stones can be seen
> at [URL deleted]
Given what most people of the relevant occupation in former times valued
the St Columba's Bay greenstone for, and how insistent they were on getting
the right stuff, you might as well have used stones chipped out of the cement
in your nearest freeway and saved yourself the trip.
I guess this needs a disclaimer that Mairi is a friend of mine; even if she
weren't, the contrast between somebody who's spent years researching the
island she comes from, writing that book and setting up a museum of local
history, and some New Age creep who hauls off a load of Scottish rocks to
sell at a massive markup with an entirely bogus tradition attached to them
without making the least effort to understand what he was exploiting (save to
put out a "please do my research for me" posting without even spellchecking
it), would make me want to puke.
Another recent booklet linking the geology and history of the area, also
by friends of mine: Joan and Monty Faithfull's study of the red granite
quarrying on the Ross of Mull (can't find the thing right now or I'd give
the full details). That stuff ended up in all sorts of places; monuments
in London, the bridge over the Kelvin in the Botanics in Glasgow, a nearby
lighthouse, innumerable gravestones. They've managed to trace most large
shipments to their original locations, and have worked out most of the
technology involved. It's an example of an unusual kind of industry, the
long-term sporadic one: quarries would open, then close for years, then
reopen when some large project started. Apparently silk production in
Lebanon used to work the same way, lying dormant when the demand wasn't
high enough; and on an even longer timescale, Lake District graphite mining,
as described in Henry Petroski's _The Pencil_, was a similar on-and-off
enterprise. I don't know of other examples. (There's an exhibition based
on this research; currently on show in Tobermory, I think).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Campin ja...@purr.demon.co.uk
T/L, 2 Haddington Place, Edinburgh EH7 4AE, Scotland (+44) 131 556 5272
--------------------- Save Scunthorpe from Censorship ---------------------
SWalker706
Jack Campin apparently thinks he has the second sight. He knows all my
darkest
secrets.I suppose Jack, the intention of your posting Re: Iona Stones was
to
insult
me for asking and humiliate me for presuming that I have anything to offer
Celtic culture.
You shoot from the hip when you slander me as a New Ager. My interest in
Iona
and her stones comes from my Scottish grandparents and the people of
Scottish
and Irish descent that I grew up with. Most of what I know was gained not
from books but from listening to old people.
Much of the jewelry I make and sell is given as religious gifts by both
Catholics and
Protestants. I am sure there are plenty of New Agers on my mailing list
but
I'll wager in the long run my best customers spent some time in Sunday
School.
As far as "grabbing a truckload of stones to sell to people who havn't a
clue", The most I have ever taken was a rucksack full, which I have done
twice. These could last for years at my limited production rate. On
several
previous trips I brought only what I put in my pockets. Since the cost of
having these stones shaped and polished by a custom stone cutter makes
them
rather more expensive than the off the shelf stones I also use, the
massive
markup you presume is actually less than what I usually charge. In my
sales
literature I presently say that these stones are from Iona, that I or my
family found them on the beach and that they are cut and polished in the
USA.
If you find this so entirely bogus as to want to puke, blow chunks and
plenty
of them.
My first knowlege of Iona greenstone was when as a teenager dabbling in
silver jewelry an aquaintance brought back a pocket full that was promtly
distributed to a number of my friends and relatives. A sailor and
fisherman,
himself of German ancestory had me fashion a Celtic Cross for him with a
bit
of the greenstone in the center. This was when I was sixteen years old.
The
tradition I grew up with is that the dark green translucent stone that
resembles sea washed bottle glass is a charm against drowning and harm
when
traveling. Anyone who was traveling to Scotland from our area was
encouraged
to make a trip to the Port of the Coracle and told where to look and how
to
get there. Yes, we have always been quite insistant on getting the right
stuff. Don't try to foist off any of the Connemarra marble on us at the
gift
shop either. We have
known about that sham for quite awhile.
I have to smirk about your suggested reading list. E. Mairi MacArthur's
book
"Columba's Island; Iona from Past to Present" is was on my desk as I read
your posting. She herself recommended it to me and It wasn't easy for me
to
get. Dr. MacArthur has been very generous in helping me research several
aspects of Iona as it relates to modern Celtic jewelry. We have been
corresponding for over a year. In addition to jewelry I also sell books
relating to Celtic design and have sold some from the New Iona Press which
she handles.
The booklet on Ross of Mull granite you site is also around here
somewhere.
Like you I can't quite put my fingers on it, but it sounds like the same
work. I bought it at a Museum in Edinburgh.
You have me dead to rights on my spelling. I'll grant you that. My spell
checker does not quite reach my e-mail, but I'm still new at this. We
Americans do spell some words differently, jewelry, for example. I always
use
the American spelling even when I know yours is different since to do
otherwise would be to impersonate a Brit.
My reason for asking about the serpantine/bloodstone is that years ago I
heard some lore about the red representing the blood of Christ and the
green
the earth that that blood was shed to save. Hardly New Age Stuff. On my
first
visit to Iona in 1975 I asked around and nobody had ever heard this but
they
told me about the greenstone as if this was the only authentic stone of
historical interest. The serpanitine is an excellent jewelry material, it
is
hard, polishes well
and has fascinating patterns. In the US people knowlegeable about lapidary
are constantly informing me that what I have is not anything at all like
what
is commonly called serpantine but is akin to a stone called "Unikite" that
comes from North Carolina. I have decided to use the term" Iona
Bloodstone"
unless someone can give me a better name for it. It would be to my
commercial
advantage to make up some mumbo-jumbo Druid spell head shop blurb card
copy
about it but my role in the creation and presentation of Celtic design is
to
keep it honest.
You are apparently knowlegable in the subject of my investigation even if
you
can't tell me anything I don't already know. For whatever reason, you
think
the worst of me for even asking. I seem to have brushed up against the
ugly
sides of both the culture of the internet and the culture of Scottish
xeneophobes in the same place.
Steve Walker
1 Main Street, Andover NY USA
cathsco...@gmail.com
> I am using stones from Iona in jewelry that I design, make and sell in the
> red, green, white and black granitite sort of stone that is found on the
> south end of the island. The bedrock around Columba's bay is made of this
> material.
>
> serpantine refers to a very different, much softer material.
>
> it. My visits have been too brief to learn much about any traditional
> world must have found some special use or meaning for it.
>
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Tapadh leibh,
>
> Steve
Best Regards Catherine Wilson .
rachel...@gmail.com
> I am using stones from Iona in jewelry that I design, make and sell in the
> US mostly for a Scots-American audience. The green marble from the old
> quarry is what is usually called "Iona Stone". I use this but also use the
> red, green, white and black granitite sort of stone that is found on the
> south end of the island. The bedrock around Columba's bay is made of this
> material.
>
> I once heard this material refered to as "bloodstone" but the silversmith
> working on the Ross of Mull referes to it as "serpantine". In the US
> serpantine refers to a very different, much softer material.
>
> Everthing connected with Iona has some sort of legend or lore attached to
> it. My visits have been too brief to learn much about any traditional
> beliefs about this stone, but since the stone is so beautiful and
> plentiful I feel certain that the imaginative people of this part of the
> world must have found some special use or meaning for it.
>
> My jewelry, including some peices that use the Iona stones can be seen at
> http://www.underbridge.com/market/walker/walker.htm
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Tapadh leibh,
>
> Steve
The Phantom Piper
>
> I am sure you have researched how Iona was formed [...]
You do realise you are replying to a more-than-20-year-old thread?
Doing The Time-Warp,
The Phantom Piper
S Viemeister
The Phantom Piper
>
> Hi there, Piper!
Hallooo there, Sheila!
So, d'ya think *NOW* they can get full independence through?
Or is the Scottish electorate ready to accept Bonnie Prince
Boris and Sweet Nigel as lawful leaders?
I urgently need to know, as even in my role of 'Greek In Rome'
I might have to flee the advent of Emperor Trump and come home.
(Or, I hear Greece is nice in the Spring...)
Awrabest,
The Phantom Piper
Alan Smaill
> On Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 9:41:12 AM UTC-7, S Viemeister wrote:
>>
>> Hi there, Piper!
>
> Hallooo there, Sheila!
>
> So, d'ya think *NOW* they can get full independence through?
will you come to Scotland and get involved?
> I urgently need to know, as even in my role of 'Greek In Rome'
> I might have to flee the advent of Emperor Trump and come home.
for you to be thinking of coming to Scotland!
> (Or, I hear Greece is nice in the Spring...)
> Awrabest,
>
> The Phantom Piper
--
Alan Smaill
S Viemeister
> The Phantom Piper <ThePhan...@comcast.net> writes:
>
>> On Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 9:41:12 AM UTC-7, S Viemeister wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi there, Piper!
>>
>> Hallooo there, Sheila!
>>
>> So, d'ya think *NOW* they can get full independence through?
>
> Only if the support is there --
The Phantom Piper
> The Phantom Piper <ThePhan...@comcast.net> writes:
My, your life must be sma[i]ll...
All that lurking, just . . . *waiting* . . . for me to come by
and allow you that moment of self-perceived 'glory'...
How sad.
Making Your Day,
The Phantom Piper
Alan Smaill
> On Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 12:30:01 PM UTC-7, Alan Smaill wrote:
>> The Phantom Piper <ThePhan...@comcast.net> writes:
>
> [Well, who cares, really?]
> Making Your Day,
>
> The Phantom Piper
--
Alan Smaill
p.s.rav...@gmail.com
My view as a geo/anthropologist is that all jewelery and in fact all treasure is meant to be stolen. It merely adds to the legends. Campin is a particularly silly grump.
Here's a freebie. Iona greenstone, from its serpentinite association, and hardness, may be nephrite jade. May be wrong, one beach would prove it, but I much doubt any marble pebbles would survive in an active beach - too soft.
So, sell your jewellery to China if it is nephrite. They go bonkers about the white colours and the price has gone even more bonkers.
To play fair, tell the folk on Iona? Place is not rich.
Peter.
Peter Spencer Ravenscroft. Geologist/social anthropologist/aging grump. Ravenswood Wildlife Sanctuary (Google “Rescue Ravenswood “ if interested) Closeburn, Queensland, Australia. Ph: 617 32894470 Email p.s.rav...@gmail.com Ex-Cape Town, for 26 years. Anti-apartheid then, anti-aparthate now.
PS: One lady who lost a jade brooch over a hundred years ago advertised a reward for its recovery in every edition of the paper for over adecade. Maybe she owned the paper, dunno. The legend of luck, no doubt.
p.s.rav...@gmail.com
My view as a geo/anthropologist is that all jewelery and in fact all treasure is meant to be stolen. It merely adds to the legends. Campin is a particularly silly grump.
Here's a freebie. Iona greenstone, from its serpentinite association, and hardness, may be nephrite jade. May be wrong, one beach would prove it, but I much doubt any marble pebbles would survive in an active beach - too soft.
So, sell your jewellery to China if it is nephrite. They go bonkers about the white colours and the price has gone even more bonkers.
To play fair, tell the folk on Iona? Place is not rich.
Peter.
The Phantom Piper
>
> G'day Steve,
Nice necro of an over-two-year-old post,
*and* with a Double-Post to boot!
Applauding,
The Phantom Piper
Adam Whyte-Settlar
What's so bad about answering a 20 year old thread?
Have you imposed some kind of statute of limitations or what?
AWS
S Viemeister
The Phantom Piper
>
> You've got a real thing for punctuality Piper.
> What's so bad about answering a 20 year old thread?
> Have you imposed some kind of statute of limitations or what?
You know what happens when I do: you get all maudlin
and teary-eyed and pretty soon we're talking about
foreskins or the Crypto-Fascist Apocalypse* or summat
and before you know it Fred or Hardy show up as though
summoned from a rusty 1-shilling condom-vending machine
(which, if you will remember, is how they began their
tenure on this planet) by a hopped-up Junkie Psychic
on Walpurgisnacht. And then where would we be?
So no, I'm just not going to do i-
Oh...damn!
Caught Out,
The Phantom Piper
*[Notice: the Crypto-Fascist Apocalypse is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of PlutoMart<tm>,
which is itself a wholly-owned subsidiary
of KleptoCorp, LLC. All broadcast rights
are retained and hello Sheila if you read
this far down.]
S Viemeister
Joe Makowiec
> <waves>
Waves back. There are still a few of us hanging around, missing the old
days when Usenet was a viable medium. And I miss the gang in here.
--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.org/
Email: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
S Viemeister
> On 24 Nov 2018 in soc.culture.scottish, S Viemeister wrote:
>
>> <waves>
>
> Waves back. There are still a few of us hanging around, missing the old
> days when Usenet was a viable medium. And I miss the gang in here.
>
Craig Cockburn
The Phantom Piper
>
> Indeed it was.
Hello, Craig! Glad to see you're still kicking.
Do you think that (perversely if appropriately
enough - given how the Act Of Union came about
in the first place) Brexit will be the event
which finally results in Scottish Independence?
The current Parcel Of Rogues is firmly embedded
in Westminster, and instead of German Geordie we
hae Boorish Boris; I think it would be Hi-LARious
if this led directly to Scotland's recognition by
the EU as a sovereign state.
(Just think: in addition to the Water Contracts,
the Power Contracts, and the Oil Contracts with
Anglistan all being renegotiated, Scotland could
change the Tax Structure for foreign-owned Golf
Courses...) */:~D
Salivating,
The Phantom Piper
David Edmunds
> On Tuesday, August 13, 2019 at 12:54:34 PM UTC-7, Craig Cockburn wrote:
> >
> > Indeed it was.
>
> Hello, Craig! Glad to see you're still kicking.
>
> Do you think that (perversely if app
> in Westminster, and instead of German Geordie we
> hae Boorish Boris; I think it would be Hi-LARious
> if this led directly to Scotland's recognition by
> the EU as a sovereign state.
>
>
>
>
> The Phantom Piper
Amen
Can we describe them as a Junta, and another Cold War period term Putsch now seems relevant?
The Iona stones are pretty but I an curious about another unusual and interesting material, someone gave me a piece, it was described as Portree Marble, it was a softish stone, easly worked and I made a pendant and trinkets using it. It was variegated, mainly black and dark green with quite bright red flecks.
Searches have not come up with anything like it. Any ideas anyone?
David Martin Edmunds
Alan Smaill
> The Iona stones are pretty but I an curious about another unusual and
> interesting material, someone gave me a piece, it was described as
> Portree Marble, it was a softish stone, easly worked and I made a
> pendant and trinkets using it. It was variegated, mainly black and
> dark green with quite bright red flecks.
>
> Searches have not come up with anything like it. Any ideas anyone?
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/skye/marble-line.shtml
https://www.jewellerylocations.co.uk/jeweller/428168/skye-cuillin-marbles
> David Martin Edmunds
--
Alan Smaill
celtic dove
I came here in search on serpentine and then realised it could be related to the Columba's tears (which led me to this thread) but this thread is so full of off-track comments, many of them rude, that I am reminded of why I don't bother much with forums unless it is so high or dry (automotive for instance) that cuts past the ugly in human nature.
There are so few Columba's tears on the south beach (as of 2013; last time I looked), that it certainly proves an earlier point that marble in general does not last long in a natural tumbling environment. Of course there is the factor of popularity as well...