Many times using the colors from a highlight bead or pendant brings a necklace together as a single unit.
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This gemstone set uses a striped Sardonyx gemstone which was end drilled as the highlight of the necklace. Polished Coral rounds combines with Carnelian discs and rounds with silver highlights and toggle clasp complete the necklace. French hook earrings using the Carnelian rounds and disks with silver highlights complete the set.
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Sardonyx is a variant of Onyx or Agate in which the colored bands are Sard in shades of red rather than black. Pure black Onyx, which is truely a died black Agate, is more common and perhaps the most famous variety, but not as common as natural Onyx with its banded colors of browns, whites and black.
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Carnelian (also spelled cornelian) is a reddish-brown mineral which is commonly used as a semi-precious gemstone. Similar to Carnelian is Sard, which is generally harder and darker. The difference between the two is not rigidly defined, and thus the two names are often used interchangeably. Both Carnelian and Sard are varieties of the silica mineral called Chalcedony and are colored red by impurities of iron oxide. The color can vary greatly, ranging from pale orange to an intense almost-black coloration.
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Corals are marine organisms typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans, which secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton which is used in the production of jewelry.
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