Lovely Mixed Natural Semi -Precious Stone Chips Beads

Price is per 31 inch of these from  9mm x 6mm x 4mm natural stone all mixed in a string. Hole size is 0.7mm.

No gemstone is more creatively striped by nature than agate, chalcedony quartz that forms in concentric layers in a wide variety of colours and textures. Each individual agate forms by filling a cavity in host rock. As a result, agate often is found as a round nodule, with concentric bands like the rings of a tree trunk. The bands sometimes look like eyes, sometimes fanciful scallops, or even a landscape with dendrite trees.

Agate was highly valued as a talisman or amulet in ancient times. It was said to quench thirst and protect from fevers. Persian magicians used agate to divert storms. A famous collection of two to four thousand agate bowls which was accumulated by Mithridates, king of Pontus, shows the enthusiasm with which agate was regarded. Agate bowls were also popular in the Byzantine Empire. Collecting agate bowls became common among European royalty during the Renaissance and many museums in Europe, including the Louvre, have spectacular examples.

Jasper is a crystalline variety of quartz that contains up to 20% foreign material. This is what determines the stone's multicolour, striped, or spotted appearance. Jasper was highly valued in ancient times, not only for its beauty, but also for the reputed magical and medicinal properties. In France jasper ornaments date back
two-millennia, Babylonians used in for seals twelve-hundred years ago, and in India it has been used for jewellery and building for centuries.

Jasper is known as the "Patron stone of counsellors and healers". Being very healing and balancing, it was used for many different medications - like grinding into a powder to treat gall bladder and kidney disease. Ancient people used jasper to
relieve pain, especially childbirth. Jasper is reported to sooth the nerves and to treat the kidneys, spleen, bladder, liver and stomach.