What is Baltic Amber?
The most plentiful type of amber today is Baltic amber, thought to date back over 40 million years it is sometimes referred to as succinite amber due to its high concentration. It can be found along the shores of the Baltic Sea (see map), specifically in Poland, northern Germany, Denmark, southern Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Kaliningrad, Russia.
Baltic amber is not only an elegant jewellery stone, but the insects and plant fragments captured within the resin have assisted in valuable research to scientists of life millions of years ago.
How The Amber Is Made
Amber started as a sticky sap/resin that ran down the side of trees encasing anything in its path e.g. insects, feathers. This resin would have initially acted as a sealant, protecting the tree from bacteria, fungus and any other threats. This resin was then buried under the earth, fossilised over millions of years, and when pressure was applied to it, it transformed into the dense hard substance that we today know as amber.
Although amber has its own natural beauty, jewellers can apply a number of thermal processing techniques to produce a variety of colours and inclusions.
Classification of Amber
Classification of Amber
The quality of a piece of amber jewellery will vary according to the classification of the actual stone used to make it and the processes that the stone has been subjected to.
The International Amber Association based in Gdansk, Poland, issues certificates to companies that have been verified as producers of authentic Baltic amber. They also produced the following classifications for Baltic amber:
- Natural Baltic Amber: (Succinite): mechanical treatment only (grinding, cutting, polishing), without any change to its natural properties.
- Modified Baltic Amber: subjected to thermal or high-pressure treatment, changing its physical properties, including the degree of transparency and colour, or shaped under similar conditions out of one nugget, previously cut to the required size.
- Reconstructed (pressed) Baltic Amber: amber pieces pressed in high temperature and under high pressure without additional components.
- Bonded Baltic Amber: (doublet, triplet), consisting of two or more parts of modified or reconstructed Baltic Amber bonded together with the use of the smallest possible amount of a binding agent to join the pieces.
Classification of Amber
All jewellery available on this site is Natural Baltic Amber.