This past week, I went to Legendary Beads, my local very nice bead store (and the place where joyce used to work for some years)..., expecting to buy something in particular that I needed. I never found what I was looking for—but that didn't stop me from spending a hundred bucks......

Among the beads that had arrived since my previous visit were these really beautiful variegated stone beads, that were identified as "jasper."

Although I know jasper can be any of lots of colors, and while I have a specimen that is opaque turquoise-blue, this is not a tone one sees very much—much less made into beads.

I'm not convinced these are jasper—and I am not even confident the colors are natural—the marketplace being what it has become. However, looking closely, what I see looks a lot like a mineral deposit in the crevices of a quartz-like material. Like crysocholla, or azurite and malachite.

We can see the group of beads life-size, and the large oval bead greatly enlarged. All of these beads are thin, flat tabular shapes. Any thoughts?

Jamey