Featured What kind of stone is this?

At first glance I thought this was some type of resin or acrylic, however, it's quite heavy and very cold like stone. Thank you.

 

Looks like carnelian

 

Thank you. I didn't realize carnelian had such a wide range of shades. I think of the deeper orange, rusty shades. Google images showed quite a few examples in this shade.

 

It could also be dyed chalcedony,a lot of it with various colors coming out of China.

 

Some of those chalcedony colors are beautiful. Are the Chinese imports recent? I'm not sure if the age will help with deciding on what it is, or isn't. I packed these away 12 years ago. I know for sure she did not do any shopping in this century. Considering her age, I doubt she bought them in the 1990's. I would say the 1980's are probably the newest these could be.

 

I don't know when the Chinese started exporting them,but people have been dying chalcedony for centuries.

 

Chalcedony is so plentiful on this planet, about the only reason to use some type of simulant would be for lighter weight, not for expense.

Holly is quite right & her comment just added that it has been dyed for centuries could be emended to 'for millennia' & still be true. However, the orangey shades of chalcedony we call carnelian/cornelian are sufficiently common that no dying may have been necessary. The black beads may also be chalcedony, in that case dyed to black, which does not occur naturally, & is quite literally one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Any of the 3 lower stones would be called carnelian by most people; the speckled, swirly, opaque one on top, although fundamentally the same stuff at the molecular level, would be called jasper:


When chalcedony becomes darker & browner, it is called sard. This intaglio of Zeus, which looks black without good light behind it, qualifies as sard:


The construction of the earrings is extremely simple (as in, give me the beads & I could make them), more like a home crafts project. Could have been a crafts fair purchase from any time.

 

Thank you for the additional posts on the chalcedony. When it comes to recognizing stones, I have a lot to learn.

I realized I didn't put the size in the original post. The large bead is almost 1". I would imagine these would hurt if someone wore them for any length of time.