The Earth speaks, if only we will listen. Sometimes, she even puts it in writing.
In these days of anthropogenic climate change already well past several tipping points, she’s tallying up a tremendous butcher’s bill, one that future generations have no hope of paying.
But she also writes as she draws and paints — seemingly for the joy of the act itself, an expression of beauty.
Today’s featured gem is an embodiment of this latter form of communication. It’s called print stone.
It’s a bit of an oddity in several ways. It’s also sometimes called Chinese writing stone, although that designation tends mostly to be reserved for white-on-black forms; it’s also sometimes labeled “zebra stone,” again, usually shades of nominal black and white. Some insist that it (and the other forms) are actually varieties of jasper, although there’s no actual consensus on the correct name: zebra jasper; fireworks jasper; starburst jasper; chrysanthemum jasper.
In reality, we’re talking about a number of different stones, and a number of different labels, perhaps most often applied erroneously. Today, we’re going to focus on the example shown here, which is print stone, but to do that properly, we also have to examine what it is not: why it doesn’t fall into one of the other categories, and what the actual differences are between each type of stone.
Let’s dispense first with the notion of jasper. We should begin (for reasons that will become clear in a bit) with a reminder of what jasper actually is, in mineralogical terms:
[Jasper is] a type of chalcedony, a form of microcrystalline quartz. Unlike other forms of those minerals, jasper is opaque. It’s virtually always multi-colored, and usually patterned, as well: Inclusions appear in the form of lines, waves, dots, swirls, orbs, clusters, and all sorts of geometric shapes. We’ve talked about jasper here before; some of it closely resembles agate, but it does not have agate’s translucence. And despite being part of the larger quartz family, it doesn’t appear in the sort of crystalline form common to ordinary quartz; its microcrystalline structure, much grainier, is what gives it its opacity. Jasper is found in all three types of rock — igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary — and it co-occurs with virtually every type of mineral, as well as some non-mineral materials such as coral and dendrites.
Jasper is a medium-hard mineral, 7 on the Mohs hardness scale. It puts it at the upper end of that scale (which tops out at 10, represented by diamond), but, at least from the categories labeled 9 and 10, the numbers apply to increases in hardness of two to four times the previous number on the scale. This means that there a fairly substantial range of minerals falls within the mid-range categories.
For our purposes today, there are, generally speaking, four named variants of jasper that are sometimes called “print stone.” I say “four named variants,” because the fact of the matter is that three variants are the same stone, simply given different names depending on who’s doing the naming. These three are fireworks jasper, starburst jasper, and chrysanthemum jasper.
It’s easy to see how they acquired their various names. It’s a jasper variant that manifests in background colors ranging from a putty-like beige to warm golds and reds and browns to a shiny jet black. But it’s the stone’s inclusions that give rise to the labels: They appear in mostly uniform patterns in a color that contrasts sharply with the stone itself, often gold, red, or white, in radiating coronal shapes that look like wheel spokes of irregular length: much like the look of a starburst, or of exploding fireworks, or of the arrangement of petals on a chrysanthemum.
Even within the category of stone that comprises the three labels, there is controversy. Some regard the other labels as three variants of yet another form, which they call spider jasper, a stone that appears most often in shades of black webbed lines, much like the legs of a spider, on a gray-white stone. Others insist that it is not jasper at all, but rhyolite, a felsic volcanic igneous rock, extrusive, rich in silica, and found nearly worldwide. Still others maintain that rhyolite is not sufficiently susceptible to the sort of polish this stone takes (although, again, in point of fact, that is not always the case).
Our own belief is that the stone is indeed jasper, and the three labels are all merely different names given to the exact same mineral variant. We believe spider jasper to be another jasper variant entirely. Examples of the stone under each name are available all over the Internet: chrysanthemum jasper; starburst jasper; fireworks jasper; spider jasper.
We’ll revisit the choice the name “chrysanthemum” in a bit, but for now, let’s turn to the other jasper variant in this discussion: zebra jasper.
In point of fact, it’s not nearly so simple as calling it “zebra jasper.” You will also see it labeled zebra marble and zebra stone, and in actuality, zebra stone is probably the most accurate. Because most of what passes for zebra stone, mislabeled jasper (or marble) is actually not a hard chalcedony-based stone at all, but a form of sedimentary rock. It is most likely, as some say, an unusually brightly-patterned, high-contrast from of argilite, the same basic substance found in such variant forms as claystone, mudstone, siltstone, and pipestone. For the sake of convenience, I’m going to use the catch-all term “siltstone,” which serves as an accurate umbrella identifier for all four forms.
First, let’s revisit what siltstone is. We’ve covered here already on a number of occasions; it is, after all, what creates the smoky red-brown matrix in Bisbee turquoise (and some other forms of that stone), the rich brown webbing in spiderweb alabaster, and the sacred material we call pipestone, used in ceremonial pipes. [With regard to the last, please note: We consider it offensive to use the word “catlinite”; Catlin was in no way the “discoverer” of pipestone, and he certainly did not treat it with anything remotely like respect. Pipestone is argilite siltstone in quartzite, and has been known to and used by our peoples since time immemorial.] Fundamentally, siltstone is sedimentary in the purest sense of that word: layers of soft sediment, clay and mud and silt, deposited by wind and water and compressed by heat and pressure over time on a geologic scale into slate, shale, and other forms.
One of those forms manifests in beautifully contrasting patterns known in some areas as zebra stone, in others, as print stone.
Classic zebra stone appears in a nominally black-and-white color combination: alternating bands of color in jet and a light shade that ranges from a pale putty gray or taupe to a paler off-white. There are brown and red variants that some call zebra stone, as well. The patterns range from wide, blocky alternating bands of color to darker lines on a light ground to narrow lines arranged in short choppy patterns that evoke images of some Asian forms of writing. It is this latter form that gave rise to the name “print stone,” and it is where the association with the [badly, stereotypically named] “Chinese writing stone” originates.
Because so-called “zebra stone” is not, at the best of times, truly black and white at all, and often manifests in other colors, we actually regard “print stone” to be the more accurate umbrella label, and consider “zebra stone” to be a variant of it, not the other way around. The one print stone cabochon Wings has in his current inventory of stones is the one shown here (each photo is of the same stone, simply from two different angles). The brick-red color, marked by broken lines in a maroon-to-brown shade, makes it clear that this is not “zebra stone” as that name clearly conceives it form. But the deep red shades are the hallmark of siltstone.
I mentioned above that we would revisit “chrysanthemum jasper.” This is the point at which we do that. The ensuing discussion will make clear the links between three separate stones: jasper; siltstone (in its print stone form), and the as-yet-unidentified “Chinese writing stone.”
One of the reasons chrysanthemum jasper is so named results perhaps less from any actual resemblance of stone to flower than from the “Asian” associations that so-called “Westerners” find in the stone’s appearance. Chrysanthemum, the flower, also carries a a diverse array of symbolism in Chinese culture. As of this writing, an example of chrysanthemum jasper that is actually co-labeled “Chinese writing stone” appears here. You can see the inclusions in the rough, which do vaguely resemble some of the brush lines in traditionally rendered forms of Asian writing (an overall style of written communication that is by no means limited to China; variants are found in Japan and a number of other East Asian societies).
However, the mineral that most accurately bears the name “Chinese writing stone” is not jasper at all, but a kind of basaltic porphyry (yes, POR-fir-wry, spelled with a “y,” not por-for-wry, spelled with a second “o”), a fine-grained igneous rock that manifests in a variety of colors, from earth tones to reds to an imperial purple shade to jet black. It is related to rhyolite; indeed, there is a variant known as rhyolite porphyry. The type of porphyry that forms Chinese writing stone contains a limestone matrix that traps crystals of andalusite, which create the beautiful whitish inclusions against the (usually glossy black) stone that give it the appearance of characters written in an Asian language. You can see an example of real Chinese writing stone next to chrysanthemum jasper at this link, where the differences in the two stones are clearly visible. You can also see additional examples of Chinese writing stone here.
There are also those who insist, mistakenly, that both types of stones come exclusively from China, which is manifestly false. The jasper is frequently found in North America, especially Mexico; Chinese writing stone may be found wherever deposits of the basaltic form of porphyry exist.
Compared to these two clearly different types of minerals, print stone suddenly looks much different. It’s softer in texture and feel, less glossy, less susceptible to a high polish. The “print” on the the stone is subtler, more understated, looking less like either zebra stripes or Asian characters than perhaps the sort of writing found in what is now labeled the Middle East: softer, more flowing lines, angles and squared tops and cedille-like symbols.
I noted above the controversy over whether zebra stone is the umbrella category, a subcategory of print stone, or a wholly different material altogether. As I also said, we incline toward the second view. But that’s not the only controversy that accompanies this particular grouping of minerals. Part of the dispute rests in sourcing: Originally, zebra stone was thought to be found only in Australia. It is true that Australia is a common source, but there have been reports in recent years of deposits in places as varied as Brazil and Mexico. Given the stone’s mineralogical and chemical composition, and given the sorts of of geologic environments in those two nations, I think it would be more unlikely if zebra stone were not found there. Print stone, on the other hand, is generally sourced, via multiple reports, to a wide array of countries, including Australia, Mexico, parts of the U.S., and areas of South America. I would be very surprised if it were not also found in most of Africa, Asia, and Europe (and possibly buried deep under the Antarctic tundra, as well). You can see examples of zebra stone here, and compare them to other examples of print stone here.
Depending on how the stone is classified, its symbolic meaning among those who engage in such practices varies. When miscast as “Chinese writing stone,” it is said (seemingly universally, in virtually the same phrasing) to permit one to “access the Akashic records” (whose existence is, of course, very much disputed, to put it mildly). Zebra stone is described as a stone of “Mother Earth,” one that uncovers truth and helps to heal and strengthen bones and teeth. Print stone is said to be another stone of Mother Earth, one related to concepts associated with creation, able to provide clarity and focus.
For us, predictably, none of these stones are any of those things. They are remarkably beautiful, unusual-looking gems, ones that are especially well-suited to use in wearable art because of their distinctive appearance.
But as a lover of words, and of the messages the earth communicates, the quality I find most important is how they are described as “print” stones. To me, they are, first and foremost, the words of Mother Earth herself — in, perhaps, a language that takes some time and effort and study to decipher, yes, but quite literally written in stone.
~ Aji
Note: As I indicated above, this is the only print stone cabochon Wings has in his current inventory. If it speaks to you and you wish to commission a piece made with it , simply inquire via the Contact form at left. If you are interested in commissioning a work made with additional print stones, with zebra stones, with Chinese writing stones, or with any of the jasper variants discussed here, he can certainly order them; please use the same link to inquire.
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
