| Make a Statement with Fired Agate Beads Add sophistication to jewelry designs with fired agate beads, including new mustard fired agate & milky fired agate. Also known as crackled agate, this gemstone’s appearance is created by applying heat, hence the name “fired.” In person, these new faceted round beads sparkle & shimmer irresistibly! More news: Contest Early-Bird Deadline! |
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Jewelry Inspirations: |
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 “Cracked & Wrapped” Bracelet |
 “Midnight Enchantress” Earrings |
 “Milky Way” Chainmaille Necklace |
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3 Comments
I think fired agates can be so pretty — in fact, I’ve even tried to crackle a couple of agate beads myself (using instructions on how to crackle marbles in the oven).
I’ve got some of the aqua fired agate beads and the mix of orange/browns and turquoise are very useful for autumn designs. Turquoise is perhaps seen as a summer colour, but add a touch of green or just dull it down a bit and it’s a great match for those autumn leaf tones.
Will have to check out the new colours soon.
That’s so interesting! I would love to hear more about your experiment in crackling agate beads. How did that turn out?
I actually have a few pics in my blog. You can find them here. Not the best pics, though…
Quartz and agate turned out to be pretty easy to crackle without shattering them. Quartz being transparent also meant the crackling was more visible. Glass beads were harder, but the glass pebbles cracked easily. I had some c or perhaps even d grade rose quartz beads too, but while they did crackle, the opaque light colour made the cracks hard to see.
I toyed with the idea to dye the glass and stone afterwards to enhance the crackled patterns, but had no idea what type of dye to use. So I left them “au naturel” for the time being.
Experimenting is fun. I’ve also heat-treated tiger’s eye in the oven after another beader told us a vendor had said she could make red tiger’s eye at home by heating brown/yellow stones she thought about buying.