The Portal

The amethyst formation at the center of this piece is extraordinarily rare — a natural ring geode, where the crystals grew in a circle around an open center. When Fabiano first saw it, he said it looked like a portal. The two sodalite macaws were carved to flank it, as though guarding the passage.

The larger macaw extends one wing across the top of the ring, while the smaller bird perches at the edge, looking inward. The sodalite shifts from dark navy at the wing tips to pale blue-grey at the breast. Gold dust particles in the photography capture what the stone does naturally under changing light.