Smoky Quartz, Heated, Faceted Round, One 4mm Strand

Smoky Quartz, Heated, Faceted Round, 4mm

This price is for one strand 15 to 16 inches long

4mm strands have 90 to 95 pieces

Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silicon and oxygen atoms. Quartz is the second most abundant  mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar. 

Smoky Quartz is a brownish grey, translucent variety of quartz that ranges in clarity from almost complete transparency to an almost-opaque brownish-gray or black crystal. The color of smoky quartz is produced when natural radiation, emitted from the surrounding rock, activates color centers around aluminum impurities within the crystalline quartz.  This usually occurs at high altitudes which is why its most notable sources are Brazil, Colorado and the Swiss Alps. Most Smokey Quartz is heated to enhance the color.

Smoky Quartz can be found in Scotland, Brazil, Korea, China, Madagascar, Russia, the Swiss Alps, the Ukraine, as well as California, Colorado, New Hampshire and North Carolina. Flat planes of Smoky Quartz were used by the Chinese in the 12th century for sunglasses.

Smoky Quartz is the state gemstone of New Hampshire.

Hardness 7 

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

Heating is a very common form of enhancement and is used to affect desired alterations of color and/or clarity.  Heating can also be used to lighten or darken a stone.  Heat is one of the conditions that cause gems to form, whether in the ground or in a lab.  Heating occurs during natural gem formation.  But heating applied to the stone after gem formation is an enhancement.