Prehnite (?) faceted tabiz-cut briolettesFaceted Tabiz Necklace
What are these tabiz-cut briolettes? The tag attached to them said "biopremght" -- does that tell you anything?! Not even Google could figure it out! The vendor insisted they are "natural" but said he had no idea what they are. He nonetheless charged me a very high price for the beads. This vendor is always fair and synthetic material is never this expensive. You may know that many fabulous fakes are being manufactured in China and India. I'm told that, generally speaking, the Chinese fakes are varieties of CZ and the Indian ones are glass. Sometimes the vendors will tell you the fakes are "natural," but the prices are always quite low. I thought these beads might be green garnet because they match the faceted round beads very well. Fortunately a knowledgeable reader came to my assistance with a number of links which convinced me the beads are in fact prehnite with brown epidote. The Wiki article shows a piece similar to these beads. He was also kind enough to include a link to a fabulous piece of rough which had the same dark matrix.. (I would be happy to give his name here to credit his observations but I have not yet received his permission to do so.)
Robert Simmons (see below) says that prehnite links the heart with the will and makes this most splendid observation: "When the will is linked to the heart rather than the egoic mind, one's actions take on the colorations of peace and one's desires are in alignment with the highest good possible in each situation." Such an achievement requires a bit more than simply wearing a particular stone, but surely having prehnite's help wouldn't hurt. You may have noticed the other pieces on my web site with green prehnite and honey-colored prehnite, as you can tell prehnite is quite variable. The stones in this necklace are faceted and polished to a very high luster. As is typical of natural stones, the individual beads are quite variable in size and coloration. They were hand-faceted to keep as much of the stone as possible. Don't you love stones with highly individual personalities like these?
The round faceted beads are green garnet, perhaps grossular garnet whose name comes from the gooseberry color of the light green stones or perhaps the more rare andradite. They have inclusions of dark material similar to the prehnite. Ahsian says that on the spiritual level, grossular garnet teaches the many facets of abundance including spiritual connection to the Divine. I haven't seen this particular type of green garnet on the market for several years. The beads I had matched perfectly and I had exactly the right number to go between the prehnite beads without a single bead left over! Clearly the design was fated!
A little fancy seed beadwork ties the colors together. i had to laugh at myself the other day, I was buying some beads made of natural materials and there was a page of "seed beads" and for a moment I couldn't figure out where they were! Shows you just how deep a rut the mind can get itself into. You may have noticed how much I love the tiny glass seed beads (as in this necklace, I generally use 15/0 Japanese or Czech Charlottes which technically are 13/0 but are about the same size.) So it took a second to dawn on me that beads made from seeds are also "seed beads." I love natural seeds but use them carefully-- I guess I have a certain fear they will go to a moist climate and sprout, which would be cool but perhaps not what the customer would prefer. At least I can guarantee this necklace won't sprout, so won't you order it today?
