Tanzanite 3X5mm Faceted Tear Drops (Calibrated)

One hill in Tanzania, blue one way and violet the next.

Held to a window, a tanzanite bead does two things at once. Turn it one way and it reads blue. Turn it again and violet rises through the facets, with a bronze cast at some angles that you catch only when the strand swings. Along a strand the color runs uneven. One bead pale lavender, the next deeper. That unevenness is part of the appeal, and makers reach for it when they want a violet-blue that will not be mistaken for amethyst.

Tanzanite is a recent arrival, so it carries none of the layered legend that older stones gathered over centuries. What it has instead is custom. Young custom. It was added to the December birthstone list in 2002, and jewelers who mark birth months have used it that way ever since, which makes it a frequent gift for a December birthday. Maasai tradition links the color blue with new birth, and people who sell and give the stone often repeat that association when they speak about it. In crystal tradition the stone is linked with calm, and it is said to steady a wearer facing something new. All of this is belief, passed along with the stone rather than proven by it.

Beliefs about stones are tradition, not advice. Read the full story.