Let Agate Bring Stability to Your Life

A member of the Chalcedony group of crystalline Quartz, Agate is the traditional stone of celebration to mark twelve years of marriage.

Many cultures also believe that the banded stone also brings stability to your life.

Used for centuries for making ornaments, pendants and brooches this form of Chalcedony really made it's mark in Germany where the world famous lapidaries of Idar-Oberstein have been turning out a very high quality of craftsmanship for nearly five hundred years.

Once a source of the stone which is now dried up, the German region now imports from Brazil and Uruguay to carry on it's proud tradition.

Other fine sources of the banded stone are Egypt, India, Italy, Madagascar, Mexico and within the United States in Arizona.

There are many different varieties of this lovely stone but we will concentrate on the most well known and sought after specimens.

Photo by Vladimir Gurov

Fire... is a rich brown stone in which oily looking bubbles appear to float across the entire colour of the stone, the effect is caused by the diffraction of light through layers of iron oxide within the Quartz.

Some irregular shapes are normal as the cutter may grind away material to purposely bring layers of colour nearer to the stones surface for maximum effect.

This stone looks very effective in a mixed cut but is also popular as a cabochon, used in cameos and beads.

Dendritic... also called Landscape, this stone is truly eyecatchingly wonderful, normally the translucent pure white stone will have dark brown or black inclusions that resemble trees, these inclusions are called Dendritic inclusions and give the appearance of a 'scene' on the stone, they are caused by the presence of hydroxides and iron oxides.

Dendritic stones are usually cut into slices and polished for use in brooches and pendants but also in cameos and cabochon cuts.

Moss... or Mocha Stone gets it's name from the brown or black manganese or the green chloride inclusions that look like lines of moss growth along the white translucent stone.

The stone is usually thinly sliced and polished to show the striking patterns of moss to the fullest.

Banded Agate... has a very distinct parallel colour banding in curved layers of differing thickness.

They very often contain white Quartz crystals but the colour banding is dependant on the impurities that are present.

Sometimes deposition has not gone all the way to the centre and here you will normally find Quartz or Amethyst crystals.

Banded stones are usually cut into polished slices and used in pendants and brooches but can look totally unique cut as a cabochon where the pattern and colours can be viewed from the sides as well as the top.

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