The Stones
Every stone has a story
Les Lulú’s colored stones are natural and chosen by hand, with the same critical eye with which the Broggian family has selected gems for sixty years. Thirteen stones, thirteen characters. You can choose them in two ways: by their meaning, what you wish to carry with you, or by how they converse with your skin, your hair and your eyes. Two paths, one stone that is right for you.
Carnelian
The stone of courage
For the ancients it was the stone of action and of living blood. Roman legionaries carved it into the seals with which they signed orders and letters, because molten wax slides off carnelian without sticking: every imprint remained clear, perfect. Napoleon always carried one with him, mounted on a chain, as a personal talisman during his military campaigns. Its story spans three thousand years: it is found in Egyptian tombs, on the rings of pharaohs, in the ornaments of the merchants who crossed the Mediterranean.
Its warm orange-red comes from the iron oxide running through the quartz. It forms above all in the great deposits of India and Brazil, where river water slowly polishes it. It is a variety of chalcedony, the same great family as agate and onyx, but it is the only one with that warm sunset color that makes it unmistakable.
Aqua chalcedony
The stone of the clear mind
Phoenician navigators carried it at sea, tied to the wrist: they believed it kept the mind fresh and the gaze lucid on long crossings. The Romans made it into seals and amulets, and for centuries it was the stone of those called to speak in public. Its name comes from Chalcedon, the ancient city on the Bosphorus through which the caravans of gems bound for the West once passed.
Its color — a soft, almost milky aquamarine, suspended between green and blue — is born in the geodes of Brazil and Uruguay. It is a variety of quartz with an extremely fine grain, and that very fineness gives it its velvety look, as if seen through a veil of water.
White agate
The stone of harmony
Agate has accompanied humankind for almost four thousand years: an amulet in ancient Egypt, a precious ornament in the courts of Mesopotamia, a carving stone beloved by the Greeks and the Romans. Its name comes from the river Achates, in Sicily, where Theophrastus first described it.
White agate is the most luminous and serene of the family. It is born inside the cavities of volcanic rock, where wafer-thin layers of quartz settle over millennia, forming its celebrated concentric bands. Its neutral, warm light converses with every skin tone: it has always been the stone of new chapters.
Pink opal
The stone of sweetness
In antiquity, opal was considered the most magical of all gems: the Romans called it opalus and held it as a symbol of hope and love. Pink opal, in particular, has always been tied to tenderness and self-love, associated since ancient times with Venus.
Opal is made of microscopic spheres of silica arranged with extraordinary order, so regular that they break up the light and return it softened. Its delicate pink comes from traces of manganese, and each specimen is a small landscape unlike any other.
Onyx
The stone of presence
Onyx has always been the gem of power and protection. Roman generals wore it engraved as a seal; the lords of the Middle Ages used it for rings and signets; in the nineteenth century it became the stone of the great ladies. Its name comes from the Greek onyx.
It is a variety of chalcedony with a full, deep black, polished to a mirror-like sheen. It forms in the layers of volcanic rock, where quartz settles in bands so regular they can be cut into surfaces of a perfect, uniform black, rare in nature.
Lavender jade
The stone of grace
Jade is one of the most revered gems in history. In the East, for millennia, it was more precious than gold: the Chinese emperors considered it the “stone of heaven”. Lavender jade is its rarest and most delicate variety: a soft, powdery violet reserved for the most beloved gems.
Its color comes from traces of manganese, and that soft wisteria shade is among the most sought after. Jade is an extraordinarily compact and tenacious stone, worked for its ability to take on a warm, deep luster, almost silky to the touch.
Green jade
The stone of prosperity
This is jade par excellence, the most classic and iconic: for thousands of years, from imperial China to the civilizations of Central America, it has been a symbol of prosperity, health and good fortune. In China it is still given as a wish for luck and long life.
Its color comes from iron and chromium, ranging from bright apple green to deep forest green. Like all jades, it is exceptionally compact and resistant: a tenacity that ancient cultures read as the image of an enduring life force.
Kalira
The stones of color
With Kalira, six more stones enter the scene, cut en cabochon — the oldest, softest form in jewelry — and set in 9-karat gold. Here the color is full, luminous, the protagonist.
Amethyst
The stone of stillness
In ancient Greece it was the stone of the lucid mind: people drank from amethyst cups to remain masters of themselves, and for centuries it adorned crowns and seals as a sign of balance and measure. It is among the most beloved gems in European history, from royal treasuries to the windows of the great jewelers.
It is the violet variety of quartz: the color comes from the iron held within the crystal and ranges from pale lilac to deep violet. The most beautiful crystals grow in the geodes of Brazil and Uruguay, and the cabochon cut softens their light.
Blue topaz
The stone of the horizon
The ancients considered it the stone of frankness and of the serene mind: whoever wore it, it was said, saw things for what they are. It was the gem of travelers, chosen before long departures.
Its crisp blue, like a sky after the wind, is born in granite rock; the most generous deposits are in Brazil. Cut en cabochon, it reveals a full, tranquil light.
Lemon quartz
The stone of good spirits
It is the stone of light energy: a sunny, vivid yellow that warms the gaze and accompanies the days with a light that lifts the spirits.
It is quartz in its freshest guise: the lemon hue comes from traces of iron in the crystal structure, and the cabochon cuts enhance its luminous transparency. The most beautiful come from Brazil.
Rose quartz
The stone of gentle love
The Romans gave it as a token of affection, and ever since it has been the stone of gentle love and self-care. Its soft pink is among the most beloved colors in the history of jewelry.
The color comes from traces of titanium and manganese diffused through the quartz, giving it that milky, soft light, never the same twice. The main deposits are in Brazil and Madagascar.
Turquoise
The stone of the journey
It is one of the first gems humankind ever loved: it adorned the pharaohs and accompanied Persian horsemen on long journeys as a talisman of protection. For millennia it has been given to those about to depart.
Its blue, unique in nature, comes from copper in the arid rocks of Iran, Tibet and the Americas. Each stone carries its own matrix pattern, like a miniature map: no two turquoises are alike.
Sardinian red coral
The stone of the Mediterranean
The red of the Mediterranean, harvested and worked in Sardinia by generations of master coral craftsmen. For centuries it has been given as a wish for life and strength, and it is among the oldest symbols of Italian jewelry.
It is an organic gem: it is born in the sea, branch by branch, and the cabochon cut enhances its full red and silky surface. Every piece is unrepeatable.
