While walking around in a field or climbing a mountain side, finding a great chunk of Agate or a piece of Jasper is a thrill for any rockhound, but being able to identify exactly what it is that has been found is quite a headache for the beginner. These headaches can be relieved very easily though with just a little bit of knowledge about the different Quartz group of stones. Agate and Jasper are actually Chalcedony, which in turn is cryptocrystalline Quartz. When you pick up a stone you can rule out that it is a piece of regular massive Quartz quite quickly just by looking to see if you can see grains within the stone. If you can see grains, you do not have an Agate or a Jasper. Most likely, what you have then is massive Quartz or some other type of stone. Many new rockhounds will mistake massive Quartz for a piece of Agate, so don't feel bad if you do. It's a very frequent mistake..
Jasper and Agate will appear to be made of wax. If the rock is just plain clear to white translucent with no markings or patterns, it is considered Chalcedony. If it is opaque, that is, if you cannot see into or through it, it is Jasper. Jasper is most frequently earth tones or red but you can find jasper in just about any color or color combination and it can contain some very lively patterns. One well known form of Jasper is called 'Picture Jasper', and just as the name suggests, the lines and markings look just like a scenic picture of mountains and valleys or forests and so on. Geometric patterns are also common in Jasper stones.
.
If a stone is an Agate, it will be translucent as is Chalcedony, but an Agate will have patterns. Most commonly, Agates have bands, and are appropriately called 'Banded Agate'. Sometimes the bands are also translucent, sometimes some are opaque. There are many Agates named to describe how they look, such as plume, orbicular, or flower and many that are named for the place they are found, such as Dryhead or Lake Superior.
If a stone is an Agate, it will be translucent as is Chalcedony, but an Agate will have patterns. Most commonly, Agates have bands, and are appropriately called 'Banded Agate'. Sometimes the bands are also translucent, sometimes some are opaque. There are many Agates named to describe how they look, such as plume, orbicular, or flower and many that are named for the place they are found, such as Dryhead or Lake Superior. .
This design incorporates a very interesting piece of Agate, which is striped but also is considered partially a Fire Agate and a Druzy Agate and has been enclosed in a silver wire wrapped holder and bail. The necklace then contains puff oval Citrine beads and faceted round Sunstone beads with their "shiller" effect and highlighted with silver beads and finished with a Toggle Clasp. Matching silver French Hook earrings containing a faceted Sunstone bead completes the set.
.
AGATE is a microcrystalline variety of quartz, chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although Agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks but can be common in certain metamorphic rocks. No gemstone is more creatively striped by Nature than Agate, the chalcedony quartz that forms in concentric layers in a wide variety of colours and textures. Each individual Agate forms by filling a cavity in host rock. As a result, Agate is often found as a round nodule, with concentric bands like the rings of a tree trunk. The bands sometimes look like eyes, fanciful scallops, or even a landscape with trees.
CITRINE is any quartz crystal or cluster that is yellow or orange in color. Although often cut as a gemstone, Citrine is actually somewhat rare in nature. Most Citrines on the market have been heat treated. Specimens of low grade, inexpensive Amethyst or Smoky Quartz are often cooked at high temperatures to produce the more profitable orange yellow Citrine. Citrines whose colors have been produced by artificial means tend to have much more of an orange or reddish caste than those found in nature, which are usually a pale yellow. Much of the natural Citrine may have started out as Amethyst but heat from nearby magmatic bodies may have caused the change to Citrine. Citrine made by heating Amethyst may be returned to a purple color by bombarding it with beta radiation..
SUNSTONE is a plagioclase feldspar, which when viewed from certain directions exhibits a spangeled appearance; this has led to its use as a gemstone. It has been found in Southern Norway, and in some United States localities. It is the official gemstone of Oregon. The optical effect appears to be due to reflections from enclosures of red hematite, in the form of minute scales, which are hexagonal, rhombic or irregular in shape, and are disposed parallel to the principal clevage-plane. These enclosures give the stone an appearance something like that of Aventurine, whence sunstone is known also as "aventurine-feldspar." The optical effect called "shiller" and the color in Oregon Sunstone is due to copper. In the middle part of this crystal, it sparks a lot, and usually has a dark color in the middle, and the color becomes lighter as it becomes the outer part..
.
