Howlite, Natural, Faceted Diamond Shape, One 8mm Strand

Howlite, Natural, Faceted Diamond Shape, 8mm, bead strands are 15 to 16 inches long. 

8mm diamond strands have 45 to 50 beads per strand.

Howlite is milky white or grey, with some black or dark brown veins as matrix. If it is pure white, then matrix is not present in the stone.  Howlite is an opaque stone and quite porous and because of this quality, it can be dyed to imitate similar colored stones, most commonly as turquoise.

Originally Howlite was mostly found in only one region in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia. But now most Howlite comes from California.  Deposits have also been found in Turkey, Germany, Mexico, Brazil and Russia.

Howlite has a similar appearance and hardness to white marble, but white marble has a low porosity compared to the porous Howlite.

Hardness 3.5

This is a natural stone that has had no treatment other than cutting, drilling, and polishing.  

The source of these beads is Brazil and they are cut, drilled and polished in China.