Ocean agate bracelet, hand knotted or straight-strung in your choice of design and with stainless steel bracelet hardware!

NOTICE: These are GENUINE gemstones! In addition to using genuine gemstones, I also use durable components that will outlast every elastic bracelet on the market. Elastic bracelets will wear out quickly and break, whereas my bracelets will give you years of wear.

You can have your bracelet made with silvery or gold-plated stainless steel components.

I offer here one of my favorite gemstone beads, ocean agate, strung on a double strand of woven silk and polyester Chinese knotting string and made into a lovely hand-knotted bracelet! The beads are 10mm wide and shaped into fat barrels, offering a shape choice other than standard round beads! Unique patterns create eye-catching contrasts on these neural, earth-toned ocean agates. You have two design choices with this bracelet:

1) A hand-knotted bracelet WITHOUT a pendant
2) A hand-knotted bracelet WITH a stainless steel pendant hanger and zinc alloy “cage” pendant. A “secret” ocean agate bead is nestled inside the pendant, adding an interesting design element to this colorful and richly-patterned ocean agate bracelet!
3) A straight-strung (no knots) bracelet WITHOUT a pendant
4) A straight-strung bracelet WITH a pendant and secret bead

“If it’s not good enough for me, then it’s not good enough for my customers. If I wouldn’t wear it, it doesn’t belong in my shop.” - Heather Constable

Why I love it: The main reason I love agate is because it’s PRETTY due to its banded and often concentric patterns of color! Agate can also display “mossy”, “leafy” and “watery” patterns, so it’s just a beautiful mineral to make into jewelry pieces! I favor BIG agate beads (10mm minimum) because larger sizes allow me to really see the variety of  distinct patterns and colors this lovely mineral puts on display! Simply put, I find agates aesthetically pleasing, so you’ll see a host of agate pieces in my shop!

Designing with agates always amazes me, because I get overwhelmed by how CREATIVE God is and how He reveals His creativity in the natural elements! I see that nothing is accidental - there is an order to how and when agate forms, and order even among the myriad patterns agate displays! Agate is a tangible way to interact with my Creator - to see His own appreciation for natural beauty! Without any given piece of the “agate equation” - silica + water + oxygen + space (voids in rock or bone into which gelatin-like agate seeps) and time (which allows agate to harden and compress) - this amazing mineral would not exist! 

Agate teaches me the lesson that God created ME with intention and order. He arranged the atoms and molecules that formed me into a human being, and according to which order EVERY human being is likewise formed! Everything in creation is interconnected through the artistic mastery of the Creator, including US! I may have a different skin color or eye color than you, but our very MOLECULES make us the same! We are EACH and EVERY ONE of us a masterpiece of our Creator, with our individual “voids” filled in by the gifts He gives us - the gift of music, the gift of creativity, the gift of knowledge, the gift of compassion, empathy and LOVE! When we break ourselves down to a cellular level, we see we are FAR more alike than we are dissimilar! So let us see not our differences, but our sameness as creations of the Creator! He values each one of us as an intentional creation, so let US find each other as valuable creations! When we SEE and UNDERSTAND our sameness it’s harder to hate one another, to take advantage of one another, to fight with and devalue one another! So let us recognize that we are brothers and sisters created with intention and love by our divine Parent! We may be varied like agate in color, shape or size, but we are ONE FAMILY! Let us recognize that and praise our Creator for creating us and loving us just the way we are!

Information about this gemstone: There are over 100 identified types of agate, so I’m only going to discuss individual agate types that I find particularly unique or beautiful (such as Yanyuan agate and Alashan agate) when I list jewelry items made with them. I will include all other agates in this “general agate” category. 

Agates are almost completely composed of silica dioxide (SiO2), with small amounts of other elements or minerals lending them a wide range of   colors and patterns. Agates are an aggregate, or group, of tightly-packed chalcedony molecules that form layer by layer, and once formed are translucent (meaning a degree of light can pass through the stone. Opaque chalcedony, through which light does not pass, is generally classified as jasper). The layering and crystallization of chalcedony molecules is what gives agate its banded patterns (or “lace” patterns as in the case of “crazy lace” or “blue lace” agates, and even “branch” patterns in the case of dendritic agate), and the presence of other substances is what gives agate its colors. 

Agate begins as a silica-rich gelatin-like substance,  which seeps into rock cavities and seams and then hardens (crystallizes). Because agate is good at “getting into tight spaces” when gelatinous, it is commonly found in fossilized animal remains (called agatized fossils) and even inside host rocks (called agatized geodes)! All varieties of agate rank between 6 and 7 on the Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness, so they’re a stable and durable stone. They’re also EXTREMELY pretty, which is why they’re favored for use in jewelry and carvings.

Fun facts: There are over ONE HUNDRED varieties of agate! Agates can display beautiful bands of richly colored patterns, from concentric circles of colors to lacelike, leaflike and branchlike patterns! Agates and jaspers can look almost identical, so the best way to determine if a stone is an agate or a jasper is to pass a beam of light over the stone. If any degree of light passes through the stone, it’s classified as “translucent” and is therefore an agate. If the beam of light is blocked by - or appears to “bounce off” - the stone’s surface, it’s classified as “opaque” and is therefore a jasper.