Price is per bead, drilled ready to thread. These large agates are ideal for a focal bead or pendant. Each will be slightly different size, shape, color and pattern - but all are cut to diamond facets and measure around 45mm x 38mm x 11mm. Beautifully polished with natural edges. Botswana agate is a purplish-gray fortification gemstone with white circles or ovoids. Usually, it is found in the form of nodules.
Legends abound about Botswana agate - like it can be used to stimulate the exploration of the unknown and to further one’s quest towards enlightenment. Botswana Agate is also said to maintain a forthright character and sustain an attentiveness to detail.
No gemstone is more creatively striped by nature than agate, chalecedony quartz that forms in concentric layers in a wide variety of colors and textures. Each individual agate forms by filling a cavity in host rock. As a result, agate often is found as a round nodule, with concentric bands like the rings of a tree trunk. The bands sometimes look like eyes, sometimes fanciful scallops, or even a landscape with dendrite trees.
Agate was highly valued as a talisman or amulet in ancient times. It was said to quench thirst and protect from fevers. Persian magicians used agate to divert storms. A famous collection of two to four thousand agate bowls which was accumulated by Mithradates, king of Pontus, shows the enthusiasm with which agate was regarded. Agate bowls were also popular in the Byzantine Empire. Collecting agate bowls became common among European royalty during the Renaissance and many museums in Europe, including the Louvre, have spectacular examples.
