Needing To Find...

Q: I have been searching all over for a type of bead that my mother found this past weekendin East Tennessee. It is a magnetic stone bead. The necklace she brought back had small beads on it, but I would be grateful for any sized bead, really.

A: Any stone or metal bead with enough iron in it will magnetize, so can you describe these a bit? How small were the beads; about as little as seed beads, or about the size of a pea? Natural stone color or silvery, etc. This would help us figure out what you are looking for. I am new to looking for beads and I guess I dont know what to put in here or not. The beads were the size of small peas and were black with a slight metallic sheen. I called her and she said the man who sold them said they came from a volcano site. This was the reason they were magnetic. He sold them to her saying they had healing properties (somehow I doubt that), but....I liked the way they looked and want to make myself a necklace anyway. Does this help? Ummm, not to doubt your source, but are they actually magnetic? Have you tried picking up pins or paperclips? The description sounds like plain old hematite to me. Does anyone know if real hematite (not the synth stuff) has enough iron in it to ba a magnet? Yep, Hematite.. the synthetic version of which is called hematine. Hematite is naturally magnetic & for years it was believed to be benificial to purifing the blood and body (from the root, "Hemo" having to do with blood as in hemostats or hemotology). Hematite is more fragile than its man-made cousin and most hematine is produced in Germany.

Discuss It!