Fire Agate Jewelry
Fire Agate is a layered stone. The layers are small enough that light entering them forms interference colors known as "fire." The gem is thought to be formed when hot water saturated with colloidal silica and iron oxide invades cavities in country rock and begin to cool. The iron oxide gives the basic brown color to the gem.Cutting Fire Agate essentially reverses nature's process by grinding and polishing away layers, following natural contours, until only the fire is visible. But, if you remove one layer too many, the stone is ruined. Fire agate jewelry takes advantage of these extraordinary colors and is often found to be made into necklaces, or colourful wind chimes where the agate has been cut thin enough to provide a ringing sound.
So how is it formed? Agate is formed as the solutions began to precipitate and grow layers of silica and iron oxide would be deposited depending on the relative level of those elements in solution and underlying conditions. These alternating silica and iron oxide layers (Schiller layers) cause the brilliant fire in the gem. As iron oxide ran out in the solution colorless chalcedony continued to grow.
Agate is a microcrystalline variety of quartz (silica), chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks but can be common in certain metamorphic rocks.
Colorful agates and other chalcedonies were obtained over 3,000 years ago from the Achates River, now called Dirillo, in Sicily. The stone was given its name by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and naturalist, who discovered the stone along the shore line of the river Achates reported to be between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Agate is one of the most common materials used in the art of hardstone carving.
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