How Have Jewelers Fashioned Stylish Necklaces From Natures Most Violent Forces?
On August 24, AD 79 Mount Vesuvius literally blew it’s top, spewing tons of molten ash, pumice and sulfuric gas miles into the atmosphere. A “firestorm” of poisonous vapors and molten debris engulfed the surrounding area suffocating the inhabitants. Pliny the Younger’s ancient voice reaches out from the grave to tell us of the disaster while he was staying at his Uncle’s home. Shrieks of the People You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. It was the Italian Jewelers of the 19th century who hit upon the idea of taming Vesuvius’s volcanic rock to make beautiful necklaces. Volcanic rock is easy to engrave and to inlay silver producing some dramatic jewelery. The methods used to make modern lava-stone objects h
