A potential customer casts a careful eye over these attractive candle sticks.
Stone -- that remarkable natural substance which man has used to construct and decorate, beautify and ornament since the dawn of civilization.
The rarest and most beautiful of them have been coveted by kings and princes throughout the world from the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians who were masters of malachite and lapis lazuli to the Romanovs, Windsors and Hohenzollerns whose jewels and regalia containing precious rubies, diamonds and sapphires are legendary.
Semi-precious stones have also been fashioned into jewellery and ornaments and jewellers from all over the Russian Federation descended on St Petersburg at the end of last week for the city's largest jewellery fare.
Up to 120 small, private traders who fashion stone for a living, opened stalls in the city's prestigious Mukhina Art Institute for a three-day exhibition and market which was attended by over 7,000 members of the public who had the chance to buy jewellery and ornaments or simply look around.
On display was everything from granite and amethyst, aquamarine, almaz, emerald, alexandrite and opal, to topaz, nephrite, obsidian, turquoise and even -- though not strictly a stone -- rare, white imperial amber.
All of the pieces you can see at these exhibitions -- which are held three to four-times-a-year in St Petersburg -- are handcrafted by craftsmen and yet are not beyond the reach of the average pocket. Most pieces from earrings and necklaces to stone easter eggs and crystal balls range from $5 dollars upwards to $100.
Some of the finest on display came from the Transbaikal region of Siberia whose store of precious and semi-precious stones has been enrichened in previous years due to the discovery of stones in the Malkhan pegmatite-field and the Vodorazdelnoye deposits in the Krasny Chikoy region. These include tourmaline found in 1981, rubellite and beryl.
Stone pendants like these can be snapped up for a few
dollars.
The craftsmen are not just jewellers, they are also artists. Svetaslav Ivanov fashions animals from agate, nephrite, quartz and topaz. A rare quartz cameo will set you back $100 while some of his miniature elephants and squirrels can be snapped up for around $30.
Mr Ivanov from St Petersburg has been in the business for 40 years and said, "It's hard work because I do everything by hand and that's time consuming but I make a living."
Sergei Valentinovich makes polished, translucent slates out of jasper and Ural stone which can be hung on the wall or over windows. However one of his favorite specialities are his spheres made from serpentine and lapis lazuli.
Victor Sharenka caters exclusively for the jewellery market and cuts precious and semi-precious gem stones for setting in rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings. All handcut, the St Petersburger is considered an old hand here and has attended all of the jewellery fares organized by the company World of Stones which was started up by four geologists four years ago.
The Organizer and Director of Mir Kamnya (World of Stones) which hosts and organizes this exhibition is Alexander Anatolyevich. He said, "We're all geologists and have spent all our lives studying and working with stones.
"Naturally in the new Russia we have been able spread our wings and form this enterprise which not only helps our organization but also gives these gifted craftsmen a platform from which to sell their artistry."
The four founders of World of Stone were linked with the Geological Museum on Vasilyevsky Ostrov in St Petersburg for many years but small, unrealistic salaries and lack of government funding made their careers untenable.
"I worked at the museum for 23 years but towards the end of the communist era things got so difficult financially I joined forces with colleagues and we came up with what you see now -- the market."
And has it been a success for all involved? The traders certainly think so and have already found markets opening up in other Russian cities and abroad in Poland and Finland.
If stones aren't your cup of tea but bones are, there's a bewildering array of fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods when dinosaurs ruled the earth. You can pick up the odd ammonite or even a trilobite for a few dollars.
