Opaque fluorite?

jolie_amethyst

So I came across these drilled ~ 1" fluorite spheres today, and a few of them are puzzling me. I'm used to fluorite being transparent--some of these have white banding that is completely opaque. Others have even the purple bands with little to no transparency. Combine the two and you have what looks almost like chevron amethyst. I need to find my black light to check them yet, but I figured I'd check in here in the meantime to see if opacity is at all normal for fluorite, or if I'm looking at something different here.

Thoughts? They're apparently from new old wholesale stock, with "made in China" labels on them. And as there's plenty more where they came from, if the purple & white opaques are likely to be amethyst, I'll go back for a few more of those. :thumbsup:

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Starri Knytes

Pretty stones aren't they? They are considered beads once they've been drilled. I have a bowl of similar in pink quartz and sodalite I keep turned so I don't see the holes.

Fluorite comes in a variety of colors purple, a couple shades of blue, green, yellow, clear, and combinations.

What are your plans for them?
 

jolie_amethyst

A couple of the rainbow ones with more predominant blush pink tones are destined to be pendants. The rest, like yours, will probably end up in a bowl. And yes, they're still beads, although there's something funny to me about "beads" this size. :joke: By the time they're this big, to me they're only useful as focal beads, which often aren't drilled through fully.

The colors are about what I'd expect to see in fluorite--it's the opaque layers and couple of beads I saw that were almost wholly opaque that are throwing me for a loop...just not used to seeing that with this stone, and not seeing much about such online. Some of the ones I left behind looked almost like banded agate, but in natural fluorite colors.

I'd love to find a few in other stones besides what they had in this place--I could see having multiple pendants with these!
 

Starri Knytes

I called mine marbles when I stumbled upon them. The shop owner about blew a gasket. [emoji23]
 

jolie_amethyst

LOL! Well, that's what all small spheres look like to me too!