Blue Lace Agate Tumbled Stones

Blue Lace Agate is safe to handle and wear. Avoid prolonged salt water and harsh chemicals, which can dull the surface.

Unlike most agates, Blue Lace Agate is a modern find. It was brought to wider attention in the early 1960s from the Ysterputs farm in southern Namibia, prized for its rare soft-blue banding, and has since become one of the most sought-after gentle chalcedonies.

Blue Lace Agate is a banded variety of chalcedony, a cryptocrystalline form of quartz (silicon dioxide) built from microscopic fibrous crystals. Its pale blue color and fine white lacework come from rhythmic layers deposited in a gas cavity, with trace minerals tinting the bands.

• Agate takes its name from the Achates River in Sicily, where the Greek philosopher Theophrastus recorded the stone being gathered in antiquity.
• Persian magi were said to burn agates in ritual to turn away violent storms and calm troubled weather.
• Greek and Roman speakers and warriors carried agate to keep a cool head and a steady, persuasive tongue.