Sunstone Beads
Sunstone beads are feldspar filled with tiny flat flakes of hematite or copper that reflect light in metallic glints, an effect called aventurescence. Color runs from pale peach to a deep orange-red. This collection holds natural sunstone in a range of finishes and shapes for bracelets, necklaces and earrings.
Appearance
The body color is peach, salmon or orange, sometimes with milky white or clear zones, and the glitter inside ranges from a fine gold dust to larger copper-colored flakes that flash as the bead turns. Strands vary: some are dense with sparkle, others show it in scattered patches. Microfaceted beads catch the most light, because each small facet brings different flakes into view. Smooth polished rounds show the glitter as a rolling shimmer, and rough chips keep the look of the raw crystal.
At 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, sunstone is a little softer than quartz and cleaves in 2 directions, so a sharp knock can split a bead along a flat plane. It is fine with water and lotion. Store it apart from harder stones to avoid scratches on the polished surface.
Formation and origin
Sunstone is a plagioclase feldspar, usually oligoclase, that crystallized slowly enough for hematite or native copper to separate out as flat platelets aligned along the crystal structure. Light reflecting off those platelets makes the glitter, and the iron in them tints the stone orange. Most bead sunstone comes from India and Tanzania, with Norway the historic source. Oregon sunstone, colored by copper and sometimes red or green, is a different deposit used mostly for faceted gems. The gem name heliolite is an older term for the same stone.
Pairings
Lepidolite beads: lilac and peach are an easy pastel pair, though lepidolite is softer and needs care.
Peach moonstone beads: the same feldspar family in a close color, with a soft sheen instead of glitter.
Citrine beads: golden quartz continues sunstone's warm range and adds transparency to a strand.
Meaning and Metaphysical Beliefs
Sunstone has long been linked with the sun and with light. Norse sagas describe a sunstone used to find the sun on cloudy days, though that stone was probably calcite, and Oregon tribes are said to have traded the local stone as a token of good fortune. In modern crystal traditions sunstone is associated with warmth, leadership and optimism, and it is placed with the sacral and solar plexus chakras. These are traditional beliefs, not claims of physical effect.
