This is an overview of the components used in my jewelry. Whether "nature" made or "man-made", I always try to be as accurate as possible about the materials used. If you are interested in the metaphysical properties of stones visit Beadage.net.

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Most of my jewelry and components are made with Sterling Silver which is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. With proper care, Silver will last a lifetime. To minimize damage, store your Silver jewelry either in a cloth pouch or a zip-lock bag and keep it away from household chemicals. Care should also be taken to prevent Silver tarnish build-up, a dulling that naturally occurs when silver reacts with sulfur or hydrogen sulfide in the ambient air. Wearing your Silver jewelry often is the best way to prevent tarnishing! Regular cleaning of your Silver jewelry will keep it bright and sparkling.

Bali Silver is also 925 Silver and gets its name from the artists who craft it which are from Bali, Indonesia. These beads are often handmade individually as opposed to casting, giving the beads a "raised' look.

Sometimes I use chains plated with Rhodium which give the jewelry a "platinum" look. Rhodium is a metal that is part of the platinum family but is liquid in its raw natural state not solid like platinum. It is extremely expensive and is often used to plate precious and base metals, giving jewelry a hard, platinum-like sheen. Rhodium is very white, reflective, extremely hard and virtually tarnish proof.

    Swarovski Crystals are beautiful and amazing and I love using them whenever I can! The company was founded at the end of the 19th century by Daniel Swarovski when he established a crystal cutting company in Wattens, Austria. The company was very successful and soon branched out in other fields like the production of optical products, abrasives and grinding tools, the cutting of crystals, and the manufacturing of decorative stones made from crystal. Today, Swarovski's crystals adorn handbags, dresses, shoes and their jewerly is famous worldwide. They contains approximately 32% lead to maximize refraction. The Swarovski Crystal range includes crystal sculptures and miniatures, jewelry and couture, home decor, and chandeliers. They also sell beads and rhinestones. Their crystals have excellent quality and purity and they reflect the colors of the rainbow. Swarovski also coats some of its crystals with special metallic chemical coatings. Aurora Borealis, or "AB", is one of the most popular coatings, and gives the surface a rainbow oil slick appearance. Other coatings include Crystal Transmission, Volcano, Aurum, and Dorado.

    Czech glass hails from the Czech Republic and has its own prestige and sparkle. Their most beautiful beads are fire polished beads which are a form of pressed glass beads which have been heated at an extremely high temperature to give very clean, glossy surfaces. Their Charlotte beads are also very popular and they are size 13/0 smooth seed beads with a single flat side to it, causing it to sparkle and shine. Czech glass comes in various sizes and shapes and the selection is amazing.

Lampwork beads are handmade glass beads made by manipulating slender glass rods in front of a gas burner or in a kiln and spinning the resulting thread around a metal rod covered in bead release. They are most often used as jewelry centerpieces and are often mini art masterpieces. Because they are developed and executed by hand they are normally more expensive than other types of beads and the price varies according to the complexity of the finished bead.

A Pearl is an organic gem formed inside mollusks such as oysters and mussels when an irritant works its way into the mollusk. As a defense mechanism, the mollusk secretes a fluid to coat the irritant known as nacre. As layer upon layer of this coating is deposited on the irritant, the pearl is formed. A cultured pearl undergoes the same process. The only difference being that the irritant is a surgically implanted mother-of-pearl bead or nuclei. Almost every Pearl on the market these days is cultured. Freshwater Pearls are available in a far wider color range than saltwater, including purple, violet, orange, blue and gray. Pearls vary in color from white to those with a hint of color, often pink, to brown or black. Each coloration will depend on the type of mollusk and the water where the mollusk lived. Because the nacre is organic, pearls are very sensitive to extreme heat, acids, dryness, and humidity so they should be stored and worn with care.

There are many types of pearls, here are some of the most popular:
natural pearls -made without human interference
cultured pearls - made when a foreign substance is intentionally inserted into a living mollusk
baroque pearls - pearls that have irregular shapes
Biwa pearls -an irregular shaped pearl which forms in the freshwater of Lake Biwa, Japan
blister pearls- pearls which grow attached to the inside of the shell
freshwater pearls - pearls which form in fresh water mollusks and resemble puffed rice
seed pearls - small, tiny pearls used in Victorian jewelry and sewn on clothing

Sometimes I will use glass pearls or Swarovski pearls and these are man-made.

Agate is a term applied to an aggregate of various forms of silica, chiefly chalcedony. The main conditions necessary for agate formation are the presence of silica from devitrified volcanic ash, water from rainfall or ground sources, manganese, iron and other mineral oxides that form the bands and inclusions.
Most popular are: Blue lace agate which has swirly white bands in a blue background; moss agate is so named for its moss-like pattern; Fire Agate is a brown-bodied stone containing yellow, green, and orange spots, with an iridescent shimmer like opal; Botswana Agate has white, gray and mauve striations; Crazy Lace Agate is light in color ranging from gray/white to pale yellow streaks.

Amethyst is the purple variety of quartz and the most valued member of the quartz family. It must be purple to be amethyst, but it can display a range of shades including deep purple, light lilac, lavender and mauve. Most amethyst gemstones on the market today are heat-treated to produce a deeper color. Heat treating is permanent and these stones will not fade over time.

Aventurine is a translucent to opaque variety of microcrystalline quartz. It contains small inclusions of shiny minerals which give the stone a sparkling effect. Inclusions of mica will give a silverish sheen, while inclusions of hematite give a reddish or grayish sparkle. Aventurine ranges in color from green, peach, brown, blue and a creamy green. Besides its uses in jewelry, aventurine is also used for ornamental purposes like vases, bowls, and figurines.

Carnelian is a form of chalcedony, a member of the quartz family and most Carnelian is heat treated today to enhance the reddish brown color.

Chalcedony is the name for a group of stones made of a microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline variety of quartz, which means the quartz crystals are too small to be seen without high magnification. In jewelry usage, the name Chalcedony is usually applied only to the light blue translucent and waxy form. Chalcedony is found in almost every color including: white, gray, black, brown, brownish red, orange, yellow, light to dark green, blue, lavender or, in the case of agates and jaspers, combinations of those colors. Other stones in this group are known as agate, jasper, petrified wood, bloodstone, fire agate, tiger's eye, chrysocolla, chrysophase, onyx, sardonyx, and carnelian.

The gemstone Chrysoprase is an opalescent apple green colored variety of chalcedony quartz. Chrysoprase derives its color from the nickel content and its semi-opaque green color, it is often mistaken for Imperial jadeite.  One of the most valuable chalcedony gem stones, chrysoprase is prized for its color and rarity.

The gemstone Chrysocolla is often confused with turquoise. It is a copper bearing mineral found wherever copper deposits occur Pure chrysocolla is too soft for jewelry purposes but it is often found in quartz deposits which makes it hard enough to polish for cabochons.  It is often found mixed with malachite, turquoise and azurite.

Citrine is a golden yellow form of quartz. It ranges in colors of yellow, yellow-brown, orange, dark orange-brown, reddish-brown.. Citrine crystals can form together with amethyst or smoky quartz to form a bi-colored quartz called ametrine. Citrine does appear naturally but most commercial citrine is the result of heating amethyst. Actually, almost all citrine that is available on the market today is heat-treated amethyst.

Garnet occurs in every color except blue and most varieties are named for their color. Rhodolite is a purplish red, hessonite is the name for an orange, cinnamon, or pinkish variety. Tsavorite is the name given to dark green grossularite. Uvarovite and demantoid are also green varieties. Pyrope garnets are purplish red, orangy red, crimson, or dark red. Spessartite garnets range from yellow and orange through red to reddish brown to dark black/brown. Color change garnets exhibit a "alexandrite-like" effect when viewed in natural light or artificial lighting.
 

Iolite is a transparent, violet-blue, light blue, or yellow-gray mineral. It has a pretty violet blue color that is unlike other gemstones. It has been compared to a light blue sapphire and it is sometimes known as "water sapphire".

Jade is the term applied to forms of jadeite and nephrite. Jadeite brings higher prices because of its more intense color and translucency, and is thought to be the true jade. Jades also appears in mottled green and white, and the rarer colors of yellow, pink, purple, and black. The range of greens are light to dark, creamy, grayish, and also white. A leek green variety called "Russian Jade" is found near Lake Baikal in Russia.  Jade is often dyed for jewelry, such as the Red Jade found in some of my pieces.

Jasper is an opaque and fine grained variety of Chalcedony. It is found in all colors including: red, brown, pink, yellow, green, grey/white and shades of blue and purple. It often contains organic material and mineral oxides which give it interesting patterns, bands and colors. Many of these patterns resemble landscapes with mountains and valleys, thus the name "picture" is part of the name of many well know jaspers. Picture jasper is a petrified or silicated mud that dripped into gas pockets in molten lava. It became superheated and then solidified forming the unusual banded patterns which are typical of this stone. Poppy Jasper is a famous jasper with red and yellow dots of "poppy flowers". It is a brecciated jasper, meaning it probably came from sun-dried and oxidized iron-rich clay and the cracks were filled in by other substances.

Lapis Lazuli is the only “rock” composed of several minerals rather than a single one. The characteristic blue comes from sodalite minerals, with any white coming from calcite, and its sparkling gold flecks from pyrite. All lapis lazuli is opaque. The finest quality is a dark, intense blue with no visible calcite and a mere sprinkling of pyrite. "Royal blue" is a descriptive term for fine material.

Moonstone is the most valuable variety of feldspar with an iridescent sheen known as adularescence. It is an opalescent stone which can range from colorless to blue, peach, green, pink, yellow, brown or gray with a silvery sheen. Clarity ranges from transparent to translucent. Rainbow moonstone is milky white with a rainbow colored sheen.

Onyx is a chalcedony quartz that has a fine texture and black color; however some onyx also displays white bands or ribbons against a black or brown background and this variety is known as Sardonyx. Most Black Onyx that is commercially available today is color enhanced (heated and dyed) to increase it's depth of color.

Peridot is the gem variety of olivine.

Quartz is the most common mineral on Earth. It is found in nearly every geological environment and is a component of almost every rock type.  It makes up about 12% of the earth's crust, occurring in a wide variety of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. It is also the most varied in terms of variety and color. It is generally divided into two groups: the transparent crystalline varieties and the translucent to opaque chalcedonies that are microcrystalline forms of quartz. Smoky Quartz is brown transparent quartz of all shades; it generally has a slightly grayish cast. Colorless quartz, also called Rock Crystals, is occasionally found with rutile needles inside which look like long golden threads, sometimes arranged in a pattern and called Rutilated Quartz.

Rhodochrosite is a manganese carbonate mineral. It occurs in ranges of color from very pale pink, pale to deep red, orange red, brownish red, orange-brown, pale to dark brown and black. The pink color of rhodochrosite is caused by the element manganese and it is formed when manganese is dissolved by ground water and combines with a carbonate material and then drips off the ceiling of caves and crevices deep underground.

Ruby Zoisite is a mineral consisting of crystalline aggregates of green zoisite with non transparent ruby inclusions. There isn't another stone like it in the mineral world.  The green zoisite is relatively soft while the ruby inclusions are usually quite hard which can make the stone difficult to cut because of the differences in hardness and usually diamond tools will be used.

Sodalite is is composed of Sodium Aluminum Silicate Chloride. It possesses a beautiful blue color ranging from royal blue to light blue as well as white.

Sugilite is named for the Japanese geologist who discovered the first specimens, Ken-ichi Sugi. It is opaque with a waxy luster and ranges  from a pale grayish lavender to a deep dark purple. Sugilite often contains black matrix,  reddish brown or yellowish blotches.

Tiger's eye is quartz with asbestos inclusions; this gives it a subtle silky appearance. Generally it is golden to brown in color; it can also be dyed. Blue material is called Crocidolite.

Turquoise is a hydrous phosphate of aluminum and copper and is a relatively soft stone. Turquoise is porous and should be kept away from chemicals. Turquoise is almost always opaque but rare, translucent stones are known to exist.  The color ranges from green and greenish blue to sky blue shades. Turquoise is often dyed and stabilized with resins to produce a harder stone which retains its color and polish.  Reconstituted Turquoise is made from small chips and "chalk" to which dyes and plastic resin is added.