Pectolite

Pectolite, from the Greek pektos "congealed" for the often mottled transluscent appearance. Found worldwide in hues of white - grey - pink - purple.

Crystals do occur but they are brittle, unless intergrown when they can be as hard as jade. So it is the massive form which is commonly cut en cabochon.

Many stones show a star-like pattern. The pink variety aka Thomsonite is named for the Scottish Chemist Thomas Thomson, after deposits were identified in Scotland in 1820.

Larimar

When Father Miguel Domingo Fuertes Loren requested official permission to explore and exploit a mine of blue stone near his parish in the Dominican Republic in November 1917, he was refused and it wasn't until the 1970s that this blue pectolite was "rediscovered" as pebbles on a beach nearby. One of the findees named the stone after his daughter Larissa along with the Spanish for sea - mar.

The locals were already familiar with this stone, calling it the "blue stone" which was often washed up on the shoreline and thought to be a gift from the ocean.

The unusual blue of this pectolite is due to the fact copper has replaced some of the sodium content, giving it tones of turquoise - teal with smatterings of white, not unlike the South Pacific when it's foamy waters meet the shore.