Amazonite Tumbled Stone

Amazonite is the blue-green variety of microcline, a potassium feldspar. KAlSi₃O₈. Triclinic. Mohs 6–6.5 - softer than quartz, with two good cleavage directions. The blue-green colour comes from traces of lead held in the feldspar structure. The fine white grid common in the stone is albite intergrown through the microcline.

It forms in granitic pegmatites - the slow-cooling, mineral-rich final fraction of a granite magma. The large, well-formed crystals of the classic Russian and Colorado deposits grew in these volatile-rich pockets over geological time.

Honest naming: amazonite is a feldspar, not a quartz. And despite the name, it has never been found in the Amazon - see Worth knowing.

Asked often

Is the colour natural?
Yes - the blue-green comes from traces of lead within the feldspar, and the white grid is the stone’s own structure. Not dyed.

Is amazonite a quartz?
No - it is a feldspar, softer than quartz at Mohs 6–6.5. Worth knowing for care: guard the stones against hard knocks.

Does it come from the Amazon?
No. Despite the name, amazonite has never been found in the Amazon - the eighteenth-century name attached to a different green stone and was never corrected.

How do I look after them?
Wipe with a soft cloth. A feldspar at Mohs 6–6.5, softer than quartz - guard them against hard knocks, which can chip along the cleavage.

1. Carried in a pocket or a bag, or held in the hand.
2. Kept in a small dish, on a desk, or on a shelf - each stone is a little different.
3. Wipe with a soft cloth; a feldspar, softer than quartz, so spare them hard knocks.

Each stone is tumble-polished and unique, so a set varies a little stone to stone. Many keep a stone where they will see it each day, or carry one in a pocket; that is a matter of preference.

Pocket stones to keep and carry. Wipe with a soft cloth; a little softer than quartz at Mohs 6–6.5, so spare them hard knocks, which can chip a feldspar along its cleavage.

• Stone: Amazonite · blue-green microcline feldspar
• Hardness: Mohs 6–6.5
• Character: Pale aqua to deep teal · often white-gridded
• Treatment: None · not dyed
• Form: Tumbled stones · polished, each unique · sold in a set
• Origin: Brazil
• Care: Wipe with a soft cloth · guard against hard knocks

Amazonite has been worked as an ornamental stone since antiquity. In Ancient Egypt, green stones like amazonite stood for new growth and renewal - the colour of returning vegetation - and the stone was cut into beads, amulets, and small objects; beads are recorded among those recovered from the tomb of Tutankhamun. It was worked, too, in Mesopotamia and across pre-Columbian South America.

The name misleads. It dates only to the eighteenth century and comes from the Amazon River, after a green stone reported from that region - yet no amazonite has ever been found in the basin. The name attached to the wrong stone and was never corrected. What the green meant to the peoples who carried it is theirs, and now yours.