Description
Howlite, Natural, Smooth Rondelle, 4x6mm
This price is for one strand 15" to 16" long
4x6mm rondelle strands have 95 to 100 pieces
Howlite is a striking, milky-white borate mineral famous for its intricate, dark spiderweb-like veins. With a texture similar to unglazed porcelain, it was first discovered in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1868. Miners in a local gypsum quarry kept hitting these hard, white lumps and complained that they were a major nuisance. They handed them to Canadian chemist and mineralogist Henry How, who realized it was a brand-new, undiscovered mineral.
Raw howlite looks remarkably like a head of cauliflower. It grows in knobby, irregular nodules and very rarely forms visible, individual crystals.
Geologically, howlite forms in evaporite deposits: dry, ancient lake beds where mineral-rich waters evaporate, leaving behind layers of borate minerals. Today, it is commercially mined in Canada, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Russia, and Turkey.
Hardness 3.5
This is a natural stone that has had no treatment other than cutting, drilling, and polishing in China
