Behind the Piece: Caribbean Drop, A Larimar Story

Not every Wildflower piece is American turquoise. The Caribbean Drop Anklet and Bracelet is one of the pieces that lives outside the owned-mine narrative on purpose.

It is an adjustable sterling silver piece set with Larimar, a soft blue stone found in exactly one place in the world. We designed it in-house. The version you wear is the version we sketched, sourced for, and signed off on. It works as an anklet or as a bracelet depending on how you wear it.

What Larimar actually is

Larimar is a rare blue variety of the mineral pectolite. It is found only in one specific region of the Dominican Republic, in a small mining area in the southwestern part of the country. The blue color comes from copper substitution in the crystal structure, similar to how copper colors turquoise. The result is a stone with a soft sky-blue to deep ocean-blue palette, sometimes with white inclusions that look like clouds in a sky.

It was first formally documented in 1974 by a Dominican geologist who named it after his daughter Larissa combined with the Spanish word for sea, mar. The name is unusual but the story is true.

Larimar is mined by a small group of operations and the supply is geologically limited. As awareness has grown, prices have moved up steadily. High-grade material with deep ocean-blue color and clean clouds is now meaningfully more expensive than it was ten years ago.

Why we work with Larimar at all

Owned-mine turquoise is the core of what we do. King's Manassa in Colorado and White Buffalo in Nevada are the materials we built the brand around. But the catalog also includes selected pieces using other stones we trust and source from people we work with directly.

Larimar earned its place because of the color and because the supply chain for Larimar is actually relatively traceable. The deposit is small enough that ethical sources are identifiable. The material is identifiable on sight if you know what to look for. And the resulting pieces look like nothing else in the catalog.

We disclose on every Larimar listing that the stone is sourced rather than from our claims. The supply chain shorthand: ethical Dominican source, cut for Wildflower, set in our shop in sterling silver. The standard our owned-mine pieces meet is the standard every other piece in the catalog has to meet too.

The piece itself

Caribbean Drop is a small adjustable piece. The Larimar cab is a teardrop shape that sits at the center of an adjustable sterling silver chain. The adjustment lets you wear it as an anklet for warmer months or as a bracelet for colder months. The total weight is light enough to layer with other pieces or wear solo without thinking about it.

The price point keeps it accessible. At under one hundred dollars, it is one of the easier entry points into the catalog for someone new to Wildflower who wants to see what our in-house design and sterling silver work looks like in person.

Who this piece is for

If you love blue stones but want something different from turquoise, Larimar is a natural place to start. The blue is softer and more oceanic than American turquoise. It pairs with sea greens, soft neutrals, and warm-weather wardrobes in a way turquoise sometimes does not.

It works as a gift piece. The adjustable function means sizing is less of a concern than fixed pieces. The Caribbean stone story is a meaningful detail to share with the recipient.

It works as a layering piece. Light enough not to compete with statement cuffs or pendants, distinctive enough to stand on its own when worn solo.

View Caribbean Drop in the shop. We also carry two other Larimar pieces: Tide and Ember pendant and Mar Caribe flip ring.