First things first: a thank you to Lauren for her suggestions on what Crab Fire Agate might be. I agree that it's carnelian (and it's funny that I bought it along with some traditional carnelian). And yes, these are definitely real stones. And they're heavy--I think I need to make sure my beading wire will hold up.
The stone's crackle lines, as I think of them, are created by heating the stone, apparently. I think it's amazingly beautiful. I can see how the name is misleading to the gem industry though. "Fire" in a stone is meant to denote a specific optical property of a stone (something like internal sparkle or glow), and isn't applicable to this stone. I suspect someone thought "fire" sounded expensive. It's misleading to use that term to describe something that is heated to bring out internal characteristics in a stone.
Now, what I'm still not sure of is whether this is carnelian agate, or carnelian chalcedony.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
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