The Alpine Crystal Story Behind Lumenlily

A shepherd in the Alps

In the depths of the Alps in the 18th century, a shepherd called old Marti worked through winters cold enough to split the skin on his knuckles. Neither his woollen cloak nor the fireplace in his wooden cabin kept the wind out, and the pain in his hands often kept him awake.

A crystal in a rock crevice

One late spring, following a stream in search of a lost sheepdog, he tripped over a crystal sitting in a rock crevice. It was completely transparent, with unmelted ice clinging to its hexagonal prisms, and it threw fine points of light across the ground when the sun caught it.

A different kind of cold

He carried the stone home inside his coat. Its coolness went straight through his clothes, but unlike ice it did not burn - it was a gentle, warm sort of cool. Resting beside his pillow that night, it took the sting out of his cracked fingers when he touched it.

What the neighbours said

A neighbour who called in at dusk saw the crystal glowing softly and said it was as if the spirit of the Alpine snow had been sealed inside it. Later a geologist who came to survey the mountain examined it closely and pointed to the tiny gas and liquid inclusions it carried.

Why it matters to the range

The story is the reason the range is built on natural stone rather than glass. Inclusions are the record of how a crystal formed, which is why we keep them rather than grading them out.