Raw Amber | Natural Baltic Amber

Things you should know about raw amber and how to get genuine raw Baltic amber from Poland

Raw amber is just that. It is raw. It is a non uniform, haphazardly created gemstone that is petrified, impurity filled tree resin. Read the Characteristics of Amber.

Raw amber comes in many colors and many grades. A good percentage of it cannot be used for jewelry in its unprocessed state. For example most white amber crumbles when worked. So it is has limited use in handmade jewelry unless heated and pressed into beads or cabochons.

To be used for making jewelry, amber must be clarified. Clarification has been done for centuries using many different methods. Today jewelers use autoclaves.

Almost amber jewelry is made with amber that has gone through an autoclave.

If you want raw amber to make your own jewelry, buy amber stones that have been clarified or first understand the costs of an autoclave and how you will use it.

Raw amber from the Baltics is generally either illegally dredge mined in the forests along the Baltic sea coast or legally in large open mines in Lithuania or Kaliningrad.

You can buy sorted raw amber by the kilogram – subject to order minimums.

Some suppliers simply sell lots of amber as it comes from the mine. Others sort it and run it through a series of sieve to separate it by size.

Because the surface of the raw amber stones is opaque, one does not know what lies below. It could be a clear piece or it could have faults. Or it could have some inclusions such as insect or plant remains. It is a game of chance.

Some suppliers offer polished raw amber. After polishing they remove the stones with inclusions or faults. And you get the uniform clear product.

The pieces with inclusions are sold to select buyers at much higher prices than the clear stones. Amber with inclusions is generally available only to select, regular customers of the seller. And even then it is only available at premium prices.

Wholesale order minimums are generally around 1 kilogram except when buying individual large stones.

Pictured below are some pictures of extremely high quality Baltic amber. One does not see such quality often.

I generally looks more like this:

Caution! Amber fraud is rampant. Now some raw amber is being sold with synthetic pieces that look like raw amber. For you the amber buyer, that really raises the price of what usable pieces you get.

A Solution For The Jewelry Maker

Mining Amber in Poland has for some time been illegal. In spite of that, small operators have been mining amber in the forests. They supply a significant amount of high quality amber such as the amber that you see above.

These illegal operations have been their own worst enemies. Where they have opened their illegal dredging operations they have left a mess. The Polish Government is now making a concerted effort to shut all these illegal operations down.

Most amber in Poland comes from the Kaliningrad. Unfortunately, the consistency and quality of the amber coming from Kaliningrad leaves a lot to be desired.

So how do you get it?

If you are a collector or want amber for test control, you can safely get some small stones here.

If you want bulk buys of raw amber, we recommend that you buy only that which you see, touch, feel and test. To do that it is best for you to visit one of the Amber Shows in Gdansk, Poland – spring and summer – and buy amber from sellers there.

The trip may be expensive, but it can be much less expensive than buying junk.

How is that? You buy some samples. You get beautiful stuff. You make a large order. You get junk. That happens more often than we want to talk about.

See, touch, feel, test. Know your seller. Visit Gdansk and create a business relationship.

And if you are going to be buying any amber, read the Amber Buyer’s Guide.