Necklaces #2 and #3 with stone beads

#2 I think may be carnelian. Yes or no?

#3 more opaque and more tan/gray than #2 Carnelian or some other agate?

Any thoughts to age of beads?

I forgot my ruler (oops) longest bead on #2 is just over 1¼" and longest on #3 is just under 1¼". All beads are very smooth and slightly asymmetrical.

close-up of beads from #2
close-up showing drill holes

close-up of beads from #3

 

Both are banded agate and mystery chalcedony, I don't see carnelian.

 

Oh - OK. Thank you!

 

Seconded. I'd call them 80s agate beads; that's when beads this shape were popular.

 

And Asian made, just like #1.

 

Thank you to @Hollyblue @evelyb30 and @Any Jewelry for commenting and setting me straight on these.

 

Carnelian/cornelian & sard are really names for certain shades, orange - brown, of chalcedony, which is a form of quartz. It is the main component in agate. The beads in necklace # 1 are what banded agate looks when there are no more colorful shades of chalcedony in the layers. Wherever the beads are orange/brown, they are carnelian; where they are not, they are plain chalcedony. Think the beads would all qualify as agate; the oval ones just grew in a more orderly fashion. Agate is not always so neatly stratified.

The beads in the strand on the left are quite similar to some I bought to replace the plastic ends on the cords for my venetian blinds; I had a cat who chewed off every single one from 5 windows. I got them in a bead store that was run by a guy who also had a gallery of 'ethnographic' art. He told me they were 'antique'. Not sure how scrupulously he was using that term, maybe just to mean made by hand. Think they may have came from somewhere in the vicinity of the Himalayas.

 

Thank you for this info (and welcome to the site), Bronwen! I am pretty confused most of the time about what to call stones from the agate 'family' ... especially those that people refer to as chalcedony. I appreciate the explanation - I just hope some of it stays in my head

 

Chalcedony................. http://www.minerals.net/gemstone/chalcedony_gemstone.aspx

 

This issue of nomenclature & categorization plagues my world too. There is no consistency of terminology: one person's sardonyx in another one's banded agate & a third one's chalcedony. To add to the confusion, we have the habit of referring to chalcedony that has been dyed black as 'onyx'. This word comes from the Greek for 'fingernail' & originally applied to the white layer over the dark background of a cameo. When the white is pared down to a breath, it becomes semi-transparent & allows some of the underlying color to show through, like a fingernail. When the ground layer is dark brown chalcedony, sard, the stone is sardonyx. This cameo is sardonyx; the dangles are banded agate, & they are both the very same stone.



It is more precise to call the other stuff 'black onyx'. At the end of the day, it is all quartz.