Those look like some pretty Sugilite beads to me! Very pretty ones!

(With some rose quartz thrown in...)

Which ones are the sugilite? Of course that was my hope, but I wasn't sure. One of the pink beads has some purple, so I wasn't sure what to think, quartz or sugilite, or perhaps some of both.

It was from a seller who didn't know what they were. I have my hopes, but want to know your opinions.

The very few plain pale pink ones are the only ones that look like quartz to me...everything else is within the color and pattern range sugilite offers. (I don't have any in my hand right at this moment as reference, but I worked in bead and rock shops for years.)

Are you going to do something fancy with them? :)

Oooo, nice strand. Your photos are helpful, thank you. I wasn't sure what the matrix stone looked like.

When I spotted them I looked at sugilite on Ebay. Of course there is a lot of junk called that. I found some that looked promising and noticed they had sold several strands for high prices, same cut and size as these stones.... a good sign, and their provenance sounded good. So I took the chance and bought these.

The necklace is actually longer than I like so if I do anything right now it would be to remove the quartz. Of course I'll keep looking for more beads of good color.

Reconstructed sugilite beads have been sold for a number of years now. Daniel L. could probably render assistance in differentiating between real and ground rock and epoxy dopplegangers.

I read about how limited the supply of sugilite, so, yes, I am concerned about authenticity, especially coming from used sources with no ID. You have me feeling more confident. Thank you. But I am concerned about the quartz and why it's there.

I'd definitely be interested in learning more! I used to help sell beads, but I didn't *make* them! :D

They are all Sugilite of various quality. The Chinese were making beads like this in large quantity about twenty years ago.

All my best . Danny

Thanks! I value your opinion.

When I started I could not find any photos on BCN. I remembered tonight to try using Google to search BCN. Well, I found this one bead with matrix stone, and very little else about sugilite

http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi?fvp=/openforum/&cmd=get&cG=9333934373&zu=3933393437&v=2&gV=0&p=

I have cut sugilite rough similar to most of the types shown in tne necklace picture. In the late 1990's I attended a show and saw hundreds of strands of reconstructed sugilite and vowed never to cut it again and frankly I have not missed cutting it. It can be wonderfully complex and exquisitely gemmy but authenticity issues are paramount to me as a stone cutter. If I were a bead collector I believe I might have a far different attitude considering that a vast amount of stone beads are etched, dyed , filled etc and they are very important to the trade and their provenance is largely unquestioned , jade beads being a perfect example.

I often look at mineral specimens when researching gemstone beads. The disconnect can be considerable. Sometimes mineral specimens look very little like cut beads with the same name.

I like having 'real' stones as much as possible instead of enhanced stones.

I was looking at jade beads recently. I simply gave up, utterly confused. Without a hardness tester I can't tell anything about jade, not from photos, not in person. I wound up thinking the sellers who say 'green quartz' are the honest ones. That's why I like variegated stones such as sugilite and larimar... knowledge gives me a slight advantage in identifying them from photos.

it is probley this strand that got me to rejoin this forum
here

Dyed Dyed Dyed

no Sugilite

sorry

nothing