White amber is quite rare it accounts for about one to two percent of all baltic amber that is acquired in various ways.

It has a rich variety of textures and markings in it. It is also called royaland bone amber and sometimes mixed up with ivory.

It can have inclusions of other colours of amber -- yellow, black, transparent, blue or green, these make the most wonderful designs.

The reason why this amber is white are little micro-bubbles trapped inside the resin while it solidified. One square milimeter of white amber ca have up to 1 million bubbles inside. The more bubbles -- the whiter the amber. Due to the bubbles white amber is much lighter than any other kind of amber and thus it floats not only in sea water but also in fresh water.

In the old times white amber was used to make very expensive medicine for heart problems. This medicine contained white amber, red coral, deer horn, roots of Rubia tinctorum pearls and claws of Black crab.

There is a type of white amber that is even rarer -- blue amber. Do not confuse this with Dominican blue amber, which is blue only in a certain light. Blue Baltic amber is actually white Baltic amber, that travelled down the rivers to Sambia peninsula in what is now Kaliningrad and settled down in soil saturated with pyrites (FeS₂). That way pyrite got into microfissures in amber and made it blue.

In the Baltic countries this kind of white amber was worn by high priests as a sign of blessing from gods and help to make true prophesies, help to communicate with the spirits of earth, water, fire and air.

All the pictures are taken by me unless mentioned otherwise. If you fancy a piece of jewellery -- leave a comment or convo me on etsy.