GetCrafty Craft Facts

Q: I've never seen it in bead form, but have conceived a great desire for a blue tiger eye necklace. Do such beads exist? Are they very much more expensive than the ordinary brown stuff? Are they something synthetic?

A: It's called chatoyancy, caused by parallel alignment of inclusions inside the stone. Tiger eye is actually quartz. When gray or green it's called cat's eye, when blue/gray or blue it's called hawk's eye, when brown, it's tiger's eye, and a mahogany color makes it bull's eye or ox eye. You might like labradorite, it has a dichroic effect (different color in a different plane). Hope this helps. Sorry I don't know a source. I saw blue tiger eye in the Fire Mountain catalog, but I didn't pay enough attention to answer your other questions -- they probably can, though! I think that Earthstone carries blue tiger eye beads. Check with the FAQ catalogue listing or on the bead fairies website page for address details. I haven't seen "blue" tiger eye, but I have some variegated blue to brown tiger eye and since they had been purchased a long time ago at a gem show, I got a great price on them. The beads I got are stone and not synthetic. I'd like to know if you do find a source for the blue tiger eye, who it is, and where they are so I can get some to play/work with. Good luck on your "hunt" and you're right, these are the friendliest bunch of folks to chat with. For anyone interested, I got hold of some 4mm, 6mm and 8mm Blue Tigereye round beads. Also 8mm round and an odd lentil shape in Red Tigereye and regular Gold Tigereye 8mm rounds. E-mail me for more info.