Stone, Semi-Precious

Aventurine

Aventurine is green in shades, translucent to opaque.  True aventurine quartz contains minute inclusions of mica which impart a sheen to the polished stone.

Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz is cloudy pink in colour, usually opaque to translucent. It is a popular semi-precious stone used in jewellery and ornamental work.

Tiger's Eye

Tiger's Eye is a quartz containing fibres of other minerals. Yellow flecks are made by light waves reflected by the fibres in the stone; the fibres give the silky lustre.

Smoky Quartz

Smoky Quartz ranges in grey colour, they are common but very popular in jewellery making, especially the smaller clean crystals.

Agate

Agate is made up of brightly coloured fine bands of fibrous quartz, opal and chalcedony. It is the most common of gemstones but at the same time the most popular.  The wide variety of patterns and colours are endless.  The most common form is the banded agate with two or more colours. But in addition there is 'moss' agate, 'tree' agate, 'picture' agate and lace agate. These names are derived from the design and form of the inclusions.  Onyx is black and white banded agate while Sardonyx is red or brown with white.

Carnelian

This is known as the blood stone, it was revered by the Egyptians as a symbol of life. It is from the core of Agate and treasured all over Africa from Ancient times. Various forms of Carnelian beads are found, globular, perfect or irregular cut, cylindrical, are a few.  Through out Asia the Carnelian is worn to protect against the evil eye and in many cultures has supernatural powers.

Sodalite

The colour of this stone is grey to blue mottled with white. It is a soft gemstone and is used for jewellery and many artefacts have been made in sodalite.

Red Jasper

Jasper is found in reds, browns and greens or combination of both green and red. The green material which is flecked with red is known as heliotrope or bloodstone and is a fairly popular gemstone, Jasper is usually found in association with Agate and Chalcedony.

Amethyst

Amethyst is common but very beautiful, it's colour range varies from a pale violet purple to a deep almost opaque purple. It derives it name from the Greek 'not drunken'; it was worn as it is believed to contain powers to prevent inebriation!

Rock Crystal

Rock Crystal is a colourless form of quartz, the Greeks named rock crystal krystallos, ice, and the Romans thought it was petrified ice.  The crystals frequently contain inclusions of other material such as tourmaline, rutile and even whole amethyst crystals.

Citrine

Citrine is a golden yellow to deep golden brown quartz which can make a very pleasing gemstone, citrine is frequently mounted in brooches and rings.

Granite

Granite beads are irregular in shape and cut, and are painstakingly ploished with chips of rock. Some date back hundreds of years and are found only in deserts, they are rough and the hole is made using a primitive drill consisting of a stick with an iron point that is rotated by a string mechanism. They come from the Dogon area of Mali.

Bauxite

The indigenous name is 'Abo'. the beads are created by chipping the stone ore into tubular or disc shapes that are then smoothed by rubbing, and a hole is bored through the centre with a bow drill. The brick red or dark brown colour is due to the iron content in the stone.

Turquoise

This is often dyed to enhance the colours of blue & green. It can discolour and you can apply a plastic film to cover the stone, which prevents discolouring often resulting in bright blue turquoise. The brown veins are limonite and the black colourings are manganese oxides and the stone has a waxy lustre. Turquoise is traded through out Africa.

Lapis Lazuli

This is a highly prized stone and consists of grains of several blue minerals. It is traded through out Africa however originates from India and Persia.

Jade

Jade can vary in colour from white, through yellow to dark green.  Jade is an all embracing term which covers a varitey of minerlas of a tough compact nature. It shoudll however only be used for the 2 main mineral species which are the true Jade. Jadeite and Nephrite.  Nephrite is the most common found all over the world. Jadeite is limited to Burma, China and Tibet.  Nephrite is mined on the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe.