Labradorite/Spectrolite

During my trip to Madagascar in March 2017 i arrived in a huge cyclone and the flight into Antananarivo was very bumpy and the skies were filled with lightning the like i have never seen before. Upon arrival the rain was torrential and the storm blew for another 3 days. Electricity was scarce and many roads were washed out from the heavy rains. The storm was another blow for the Malagasy people and damage to their homes was quite extensive but luckily casualty reports seemed quite minimal bearing in mind the ferocity of the storm. Several Labradorite suppliers had been lined up to bring in their labradorite during my trip but because of damage to the already fragile dirt roads they could not make it in with their goods. So on the Saturday we set off in the 4 wheel drive pick up on our journey to visit the families with their labradorite goods for sale. Just weaving your way around Tana is a nightmare and i often wonder how the city does not just grind to a complete stand still. Finally we reach our destination and the 4 different families have all of their labradorite freeforms laid out in a huge area. The next job for me to do is hand select each piece of labradorite that i am going to ship back to the U.K. We look for good colour, finish and aesthetic shape when we select the labradorite and a good blue flash of colour or schiller is always what we are looking for. Finally the selection is made and the labradorite is packed into hessian sacks to be weighed. Our pick up groans as we load the 500 Kilograms into the truck and we make our way to the next stop of the day. As i enter the yard i am very excited to see different colours being shown in the labradorite and the rough is much different to the blues, greens and yellows that i normally see. Purples, reds and violets are being shown and even the blues and greens look much different to usual. The material looks much more like Spectrolite from Finland which shows these extra colours. Some people sell this material as Madagascan spectrolite and Madagascar is also recognised as a source for spectrolite by many people. This spectrolite material seems much harder than normal labradorite and this results in a very good all over polish to the material.Firstly i inspect the rough material and decide to have it worked into pebbles and freeform shapes as this is the best way to display the beautiful and unusual purples blues silvers and basically the full colour spectrum which can be displayed from this material.The patterns are also much different and distinct and the irridescence is very vivid.I have really fallen in love with this truly unique material and here at www.madagascandirect.com we are proud to be selling this gorgeous material in freeforms and pebbles and we will be offering an extensive listing of this beautiful rare and unique material.