Sculpture – Sodalite #4

Sodalite is a blue mineral that is often found in massive rock formations. ‘Sodalite’ means ‘salt stone’ in Greek, alluding to its high sodium (main component in table salt) content. Sodalite rarely occurs in well formed crystals, but if that is the case, they are often clear, deep blue dodecahedrons. More often Sodalite is seen with other minerals intergrown, like Calcite or Natrolite. The stone was discovered on Greenland in 1811 for the first time, but only became popular from 1891 onwards, when a large deposit was discovered in Canada. There are Sodalite varieties with different colours than blue, like yellow or green. Hackmanite is most unique out of all of those, because of its strong UV-reactivity. Normally, Hackmanite is quite pale, but when it comes in contact with the sun, it turns a beautiful violet/purple. Sodalite is closely related to Lazurite, the most important component of Lapis Lazuli.