Natural stones vary. Your strand will match these photos in colour and size range, not bead for bead. Photographed under daylight-balanced light with no colour correction.
Rhodochrosite 9x15mm Faceted Pyramid
Specifications
| SKU | GS105 |
|---|---|
| Stone | Rhodochrosite |
| Shape | Pyramid |
| Bead size | 9x15mm |
| Cut | Faceted |
| Color | — |
| Weight | On request |
| Hardness (Mohs) | 3.5 to 4 |
| Origin | Cut in Jaipur, India |
| Availability | In stock |
Rhodochrosite gemstone is a manganese carbonate. It has a lovely natural pink color and found as well-formed crystals, and can be extremely valuable as impure mineral specimens. The stone has hardness of 3.5-4, cleavage in 3 directions, and does well in pendants, pins, and earrings.
What it makes
Pyramids are used for pendants, spike necklaces, earrings. Measured base by height, e.g. 9x15mm; usually drilled drilled across the base. More about pyramids.
Growth rings from an old silver mine, in rose and cream.
Pink and cream in alternating bands, each one following the curve of the last. On a strand of large ovals the pattern shifts bead to bead: some cut across the rings like a sliced onion, others catch them lengthwise as soft stripes. Hold one to a window and the edges go translucent, the rose deepening toward raspberry where the band is thickest. Makers reach for it because no two beads repeat, and because that pink is a mineral color.
In crystal tradition, rhodochrosite is called a stone of compassion, and the folklore around it stays in that register: kindness rather than power or luck. People who keep stones for their meanings group it with the pink stones for that reason. The Argentine name, Inca Rose, carries its own affection in the stories told about the Capillitas mine and the Incas who worked it, and Argentina has since made rhodochrosite its national stone, which gives the pink a second kind of meaning there. All of this is belief and custom rather than fact, passed along with the stone from one owner to the next.
Beliefs about stones are tradition, not advice. Read the full story.
Manganese carbonate. Mohs 3.5-4, perfect cleavage in three directions. Banded pink-and-cream bead material comes from the Capillitas mine, Catamarca, Argentina, where it formed as stalactites in old copper-silver workings, hence "Inca Rose."
Necklaces and earrings only. Perfume, sweat and any acid etch it. Damp cloth and dry; no soaking, ultrasonic or heat.
Full stone guide
