Eilat Stone Station Necklace

March 2025
Eilat stone, sterling silver

I was asked to make a station necklace (also known as a Tin Cup necklace) for a young woman about to become bat mitzvah, but using Eilat stone instead of pearls. Eilat stone (or King Solomon Stone) was originally discovered in the south of Israel, and is a fascinatingly beautiful blue-green amalgam of azurite, chrysocolla, malachite, pseudomalachite, and turquoise. It is the national stone of the modern state of Israel.

I placed seven Eilat Stone beads along the length of the necklace. The Hebrew word for "seven" is שבע (sheva), which has the same root as the word שבת, or Shabbat. As a bat mitzvah (literally "Daughter of the Commandments") she is being called to the Torah literally and figuratively, to not only read from the Torah scroll for the first time but to take on the mantel of being a full-fledged member of the community. Keeping Shabbat is one of the most fundamental and consistently observed commandments in Jewish life, and through it one may be reminded of the rest of Torah.

May she wear the necklace in health, may it remind her of Eretz Israel and of the Sabbath, and as bat mitzvah may she always make her choices in life with the wisdom of King Solomon!