Material reference

Blue Sandstone (Blue Goldstone Glass) · Gabi ng mga Bituin

Scientific identity, documented history, and community contexts are presented with sources. TÁWID’s contemporary design interpretation is identified separately.

Material identity

“Blue Sandstone” is the catalogue name for a manufactured, glittering glass. It is not natural sandstone, the sedimentary rock made from cemented grains. The distinction matters because a poetic or commercial name can suggest a geological origin that the material does not have.

Goldstone is a familiar example of glass containing reflective copper crystals, as described by GIA. The blue product’s exact colourant and recipe should not be inferred from that general comparison. Glass is a broad material category with many compositions, and a visible sparkle does not identify every constituent. [1]

Documented historical context

A documented comparison for glittering glass is the Met’s eighteenth-century snuffbox from the Miotti family workshop on Murano. Its aventurine-glass body was cast, cut, and polished, then fitted with gilded bronze mounts. It demonstrates sparkling glass used in a luxury domestic object, rather than as a natural mineral.

This Italian object belongs to the wider craft history of decorative glass. It does not establish the first manufacture, recipe, or origin of the modern blue bead sold here as Blue Sandstone. [2] [4]

Glass in Philippine beadwork

The Met’s Philippine cotton-and-glass-bead panel, dated to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, documents glass incorporated into textile beadwork. The beads’ exact manufacturing source is not given, and the record does not identify blue goldstone. It is a Philippine comparison through the medium of glass and the work of arranging beads. [3]

TÁWID’s contemporary interpretation

Gabi ng mga Bituin is TÁWID’s contemporary title inspired by a night-sky appearance.

Material note

Glass bead traditions and the provenance of a particular modern bead are separate questions.

References

1. GIA, “Are there sunstone imitations?”
2. Corning Museum of Glass, Glass Dictionary, “Aventurine”
3. Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Panel,” Philippines, late nineteenth–early twentieth century, 1999.47.139
4. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Miotti Family Workshop, “Snuffbox,” Murano, eighteenth century, 81.8.53

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