Description
Eye Keep Connemara Marble & Pearl Sterling Silver Collection
We are a small Irish family business creating luxury handcrafted accessories that tell a story. All our products are handmade in our studios in Dublin using the finest quality materials. Our handmade eyeglass holders known as Eye Keeps address the problem of where to keep your glasses when not on your face. The Connemara Marble & Pearl and Irish Sterling Silver Eye Keep is a piece of functional jewellery worn around the neck like a necklace with a ring for your glasses to sit safely through so that they are close to hand at all times. In reality, it is a necklace for eyewear.
The Eye Keep is ideal for anyone who wears reading or occupational glasses and perfect for your sunglasses. Our Eye Keeps come in everyday casual wear where we have cord eyeglass holders, to high-end jewellery pieces to include beaded eyeglass holders and pearl eyeglass holders, so there is one to suit all occasions. They come in a wide range of colours too. The Eye Keep comes with a velvet pouch.
We love and appreciate the story behind each of our products and want to share that with you. As a result, we have taken the time to select the right materials to make each one of our Eye Keeps so that you can experience today, that small piece of history that existed long ago.
Our Connemara Marble & Pearl Eye Keep is made from the finest gemstones of Connemara Marble and Cultured Pearls and an Irish Sterling Silver ring to keep and hold your glasses. Colour, Green and White
Our Products
At Woods & Byrne we use 925 Sterling Silver in all of our Eye Keep Silver collections. Each handcrafted piece features the stamp of the Dublin Assay Office. This is your guarantee of quality craftsmanship and quality materials. Dublin Assay Office
There are different purity levels of silver
Fine silver or .999 level of purity. This is pure silver and lustrous. It is also very soft and not very suitable for jewellery.
Sterling silver or 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. This silver must contain 92.5% pure silver to be called sterling silver. Sterling silver is used in jewellery and tableware.
Silver-plate on the other hand is a thin layer of pure silver plated over a base metal. This is a more affordable option to the more expensive forms of solid silver.
A little piece of history…
Connemara Marble is recognised as the iconic gemstone of Ireland. Its use in jewellery is considered an indigenous industry and the quarrying of marble is a centuries-old initiative. The marble is rare and beautiful and is found on the wild Atlantic coastline.
Connemara Marble is hugely popular in Celtic jewellery but is also used to adorn many buildings, especially churches and cathedrals.
The most valuable pearls are natural pearls and they form spontaneously in the wild, are very rare and expensive. The development of cultured pearls which are human creations made pearls more widely available. 99% of all pearls sold today are cultured pearls
In the beginning… According to a study published in the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics in September 2012, silver, like gold formed in stellar outbursts called supernovae. The study found that exploding smaller stars produced silver while the bigger stars produced gold. These metals exploded onto the Earth.
Silver has a long history. The first evidence of silver mining dates back to 3000 BC to Turkey and Greece. Today most of the world’s supplies of silver comes from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Bolivia.
In Ireland, the Silvermines in Co. Tipperary is unique amongst Irish mines for two reasons. Firstly, it contains argentiferous lead and commercial amounts of copper, zinc, barytes and sulphur. Secondly, for its longevity. Mining at Silvermines dates back as far as 1298 when Italian miners came in search of silver. The last working mine was closed in 1993.
Silver has many applications and uses as well as in making jewellery, coins and tableware. Silver is used for making mirrors as it is the best reflector of light. It is also used in electronic and electrical circuits. And it played a big role in making early photography possible. What you may not know is that silver also has antibacterial properties. Silver nanoparticles are used in clothing to stop bacteria digesting sweat and producing unpleasant odours.
Dimensions
Approx 61 – 64cm long (24 – 25in) (lengths may vary slightly as cultured pearls vary in size)
25mm Sterling Silver Teardrop Ring
If you would like more information on this or other products please contact us here
Naomi Meehan –
The Eye Keeps are truly fantastic and a life saver. No more looking for my glasses. The Connemara Pearl and Marble are great to wear on special occasions. The piece is exactly as it appears on the website and the quality is of a very high standard.