|
I love the look and weight of Hematite beads. A great cool necklace to wear in the summer as the beads seem to stay cool. They are quite heavy beads. The pendant is all Hematite and is carved into an elephant. The necklace itself is made up of Hematite ball and barrel beads with silver balls spaced between and mounted on tiger tail and has silver plated fittings.
Length 17 inches
INFO
Hematite, also spelt Haematite is a mineral form of Iron oxide.
The name Hematite (Haematite) is deived from the greek word for blood. Ancient superstition said that large deposits of Hematite formed due to battles which had been fought and large amounts of blood flowed into the ground. (Believe that if you will). Its colour is shiny black or grey and reddish brown. Red ochre (powdered Hematite) was used in cavemen wall drawings.
Egyptians used Hematite to to make carvings on their tombs eg scarabs.
Grey Hematite is found in places where there is large amounts of standing water eg Lake superior and Yellowstone national park. Having said that it can also be found where there has been volcanic erruptions and is in the volcanic rock.
Hematite has also been found on Mars and is an exciting find because it can be linked to where there is standing water and could with future missions to Mars be proof that there was once life on Mars. Fine grain Hematite is rusty red in colour and gives Mars its reddish look.
Hematite can be very easily confused with Hemalyke! This is ground Hematite mixed with a biner (glue) and then press molded into shapes eg different bead shapes. It looks very much like the real thing and is very difficult to tell them apart.
|
