Astorite Beads
RARE!
Swirling pinks, clear and little fibers of gold and silver make up Astorite. The color ranges from pink, red, clear, white, dark with translucent to opaque areas, showing little flecks of gold and silver. This stone, its contradictions, colors, minerals and metallics, from composition to formation, is unique and one of a kind.
Astorite is basically rhodonite, but in addition also contains - pardon us if we get rock-geeky here! - rhodochrosite, quartz (in the form of pseudomorphs, and chalcedony, after quartz), and ore gangue silicified (complex sulfide ore with native metallics of gold, silver, copper, lead and chalcopyrite). This combination is what gives it a special look - as far as we know, astorite is only found in a very remote area of Colorado in a mine located 12,000 feet above sea level in an avalanche chute. The mineral and mine are named after the previous mine owner JOHN JACOB ASTOR IV, once considered the wealthiest man in America.
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Click on the picture to see a close-up | |
Astorite
Priced PER INDIVIDUAL BEAD
Each bead is drilled through
Available in:
8mm Round - $2.25 per bead
6mm Rondelle 75 cents per bead
8mm Rondelle - $1.15 per bead
Becky Anders (email: anders98@bellsouth.net) used our rare astorite as the highlight in this lovely bracelet
- click on the picture to see the detail.
Visit her website, www.braceletshoppe.com, for more samples of her work.