Ruby zoisite

Green rock, red crystal, black flecks between.

Green first, the flat opaque green of a painted shutter. Then the red comes through in patches, sometimes a wide bloom, sometimes a scatter of pink, with black flecks of hornblende sitting between. Run a fingernail along a faceted marquise and you feel a shallow groove where the soft zoisite meets the hard ruby. The ruby stands proud. Makers reach for it because it carries three colors at once and needs nothing else beside it.

Where it comes from

Zoisite got its name from a collector named Zois, after the first find in the Sau-Alp mountains of Austria in 1805, when it was called saualpite. The rock that makes these beads comes from much farther south. In the Longido district of Tanzania, in the Arusha Region, ruby was found about a hundred years ago, making it one of the longest-known occurrences in Africa. The material from the Mundarara mine is large red corundum crystals grown into a chrome-green zoisite matrix, speckled with black amphibole. Most of it has always gone to carvers, who make sculptures and ornamental objects, since the ruby is opaque rather than facet grade. Now and then clear crystals turn up: a GIA team collected sixteen transparent rubies there in July 2016. Local names stuck too. Anyolite comes from the Maasai word anyoli, green, and the rock has also been sold as Tanganyika artstone.

What tradition says

Few stones carry as much lore as ruby. Across centuries and many cultures, the red corundum was tied to myth and romance, and some of that follows it here even though the red in these beads is opaque and set in rock. In crystal tradition, ruby zoisite is a stone of vitality, the green and the red held to work together rather than apart. People who work with it speak of it in those terms, and that is part of why the stone gets picked up off the table. All of this is belief and custom rather than fact, and worth holding lightly.

These are beliefs people have held about the stone, told as tradition. They are not claims, and not advice.

How makers use it

Marquise and daggers move fastest. A 10x25mm marquise hangs well as a fringe or a single drop, and daggers give a row of points along a collar without much weight. Pears take a bail cleanly for earrings. Holiday designers use it for red and green without going literal, watermelon-palette makers like the pink and green together, and men's lines use it when they want color that is not shiny. We list twenty strands, faceted and organic cut, from 10x15mm shapes up to long drops. They are cut in Jaipur and chosen here in Cupertino, with an eye for beads that show all three colors: green, red, and a little black. Weaker strands are mostly green with pink specks.

Looking after it

Sturdy enough for necklaces and earrings; bracelets take more care, since the zoisite is softer than the ruby and knocks against door frames and desks. Wash in warm soapy water with a soft brush and dry the knots. Keep faceted pieces out of the ultrasonic.

Sources: Anyolite - Wikipedia, Zoisite Gems: Tanzanite, Anyolite, Ruby in Zoisite, Thulite, Ruby Zoisite - The Mineral and Gemstone Kingdom, Ruby Gemstone Value, Price & Jewelry Insights - IGS