Color Challenge Friday Blue - "AMAZONITE BEADS" ~ © Tiffany E. Reed

I recently shared a lovely Amazonite sphere that is in my minerals collection. Many years ago, I had a hobby of making jewelry from semi-precious stones such as jasper, turquoise, rose quartz, smoky quartz, and others — including amazonite!

This necklace, pictured above, is one that I made from pale-blue amazonite beads, with an occasional gray labradorite bead as an accent.

The central bead in the necklace I designed is a square-with-rounded-corners piece of amazonite that has whitish streaks of albite and dark flecks that might be schorl (black tourmaline).

This necklace was strung on 0.38mm steel jewelry wire, and I used stainless crimps and clasps. I usually triple the wire in a special configuration that I learned over time for added strength and durability. One shop in Tennessee carried my jewelry items for sale several years ago, which meant a little extra spending money to buy more jewelry supplies!