Quick Specs
- Stone: Amazonite
- Shape: Tumbled free-form stone
- Finish: Polished
- Hanger: Silver-toned metal bail
- Color: Aqua green with cream streaks
Tumbled Amazonite With Aqua and Cream Streaks
The stone is a smooth, rounded piece shaped like a softened triangle with its point at the bottom, glossy enough to show highlights along its curved face. Its color runs from aqua to mint green, laid down in streaks that lean diagonally across the piece, with creamy white lines between them. Those pale lines are typical of amazonite, which is usually green with white streaks and uneven color. A silver-toned bail sits at the top, a flat metal strip folded into a loop where a cord or chain passes through, with a small ring joining it to the stone. Tumbling gives the pendant its form: it rounds off the edges of a rough stone and polishes the surface until it takes a shine, so nothing on the pendant is sharp. Amazonite is the green to blue-green variety of microcline, a potassium feldspar with the formula KAlSi3O8. Each tumbled stone follows the shape of its own rough piece, so the pendant you receive has its own outline and its own pattern of streaks.
Amazonite rates 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, softer than quartz and beryl, and household dust is harder than the stone, so a polished surface can pick up fine scratches over the years. It also splits along two flat directions called cleavage, so a sharp knock can break it. Jewelers favor amazonite for pendants and earrings, and a pendant hangs away from the hands, where it meets fewer bumps than a ring or bracelet would. The color of the mineral runs from deep forest green to pale bluish-green, and this pendant sits at the aqua end of that range. The stone comes from Brazil, Russia and Colorado, among other places, and Ethiopia and Madagascar also produce it. In modern crystal practice amazonite goes with the heart and throat chakras and with themes of communication and self-expression. A pendant at the chest keeps the stone within reach through a day of conversations, and you can close a hand around it and feel its smooth surface.
Practical Ritual Applications
Thread the bail onto a cord or chain from my neck chains, cords, and cages, and check that the end of your cord passes through the bail before you hang it. Wear the pendant on a day when you have conversations ahead, and touch it before you speak. On a desk, lay it beside a notebook as a small marker for a writing session. On an altar, set it in a dish of salt or beside a blue candle in its own holder. In a pocket or pouch it travels with a Tarot deck, and it fits easily in a hand during a short meditation on the heart or throat chakra. Between wearings, hang it from a hook near a mirror or window.
How to Wear and Care for the Amazonite Tumbled Pendant
Three steps cover the cord, the wear and the cleaning.
- Choose a Cord or Chain
The bail is the metal loop at the top of the stone. Hold your chosen cord or chain up to it and make sure the end passes through, then thread the pendant on and let it hang. A thin cord shows off the stone, and a heavier chain gives the pendant more weight at the chest. Look at how the stone sits when it hangs, and turn it so the streaks face outward.
- Keep It Clear of Knocks
Amazonite has two directions of perfect cleavage, so a hard knock can split it. Wear the pendant under or just outside a top, away from door frames, counters and bags that could strike it. Take it off before sports, gardening and sleep. Keep it out of your mouth and out of drinking water, because a lab test found lead released from amazonite in a saliva-like solution.
- Clean and Store Carefully
Brush the stone gently with a soft brush, mild detergent and warm water, then dry it with a soft cloth. The International Gem Society advises against ultrasonic and steam cleaners for amazonite. Store the pendant in a pouch or a lined box of its own, since harder stones and household dust can scratch the polish.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock this pendant because a single tumbled stone shows amazonite at its simplest: aqua and cream streaks, a glossy surface and a metal bail, with nothing added. Each piece differs in shape and pattern, so you receive a stone with its own look. Amazonite is soft for a gem, which is why I suggest wearing it with care and storing it apart from harder stones. The heart and throat chakra links are modern crystal lore, and you decide what they mean to you. For more stones to wear or place on an altar, browse my chakra and Reiki collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cleaning with water is fine: the International Gem Society recommends a soft brush, mild detergent and warm water, and advises against ultrasonic and steam cleaners. Drinking water is another question. A German gem-testing lab, EPI, found lead released from an amazonite sample in an acidic, saliva-like test, and the lab advises against putting amazonite directly into water. For that reason I keep this stone out of drinking water and out of the mouth.
Amazonite rates 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, softer than quartz and beryl. The International Gem Society says household dust can scratch it and that it suits pendants, earrings and brooches best. Geology.com adds that its two directions of perfect cleavage let a hard knock break it, and that a protective setting lowers that risk. A pendant is a good fit because it meets fewer knocks than a ring or bracelet.
The cause is still debated. Wikipedia reports that a 1985 study linked the blue-green color to lead and water in the feldspar, other studies proposed lead with rubidium and thallium, and a 2010 study pointed to divalent iron. Geology.com says trace lead is thought to produce the green. Whatever the cause, amazonite is classed as a green to blue-green microcline, and the shade varies from stone to stone.
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