Fluorite Crystal Bracelet

Fluorite is calcium fluoride - CaF₂ - and the most colourful common mineral, banding violet, green, blue, and clear within a single piece. The colours come from traces in the lattice and from natural radiation; the bands map the stages of its growth.

It is famously soft - Mohs 4, defining that point on the hardness scale - and it splits cleanly along octahedral planes, so it is more fragile than its glassy clarity suggests. Translucent to transparent, it glows when light passes through.

Fluorite gave the word fluorescence to science: many fluorites glow under ultraviolet light, and the effect was named after the mineral in which it was first studied. The mineral’s own name is from the Latin fluere, to flow, for its use as a flux in smelting.

Asked often

Why so many colours in one bead?
Traces of different elements and natural radiation colour fluorite as it grows, band by band - violet, green, blue, clear. The banding records the stages of its growth, and no two beads match.

Is the colour natural?
Yes - the colours are the mineral’s own, from its lattice chemistry and natural radiation. Untreated fluorite already runs the full range from violet to green.

Is it fragile?
Softer than most worn stones - Mohs 4 - and it cleaves cleanly along octahedral planes, so it parts under a sharp knock. Worn with care it lasts; it dislikes impacts and strong sun, which can fade some colours.

How do I care for it?
Wipe with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry. Spare the beads sharp knocks, keep them out of prolonged strong sun, and keep the cord dry.

Fluorite has served science and ornament alike. The banded purple-and-yellow fluorite of Derbyshire, called Blue John, was carved into vases and inlays prized across Georgian Europe; clear fluorite was ground into lenses for early microscopes and telescopes, for it bends light with little colour fringing. And it gave fluorescence its very name.

For its glowing colour fluorite was read as a stone of clarity and order across the cultures that worked it - named here as what people believed. The colour is lattice and light; what it clears is the wearer’s.

1. Worn on either wrist, over the hand, on a durable elastic cord.
2. Hold it to the light - the colour bands run violet through green to clear.
3. Wipe with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry.
4. Soft at Mohs 4 and cleaving cleanly - spare the beads sharp knocks, and keep them out of prolonged strong sun.

Fluorite is soft and cleaves cleanly, so it asks more care than the quartzes - gentle handling and out of harsh sun. That care suits the most colourful of common minerals.

The elastic cord lasts longest kept dry - remove before swimming, bathing, or applying scent. Spare sharp knocks; keep out of strong sun; do not soak.

• Stone: Fluorite · calcium fluoride
• Composition: CaF₂
• Hardness: Mohs 4
• Character: Banded violet, green, blue, and clear · translucent
• Treatment: None · untreated
• Band: Durable elastic cord
• Origin: China
• Care: Soft cloth · spare knocks · out of strong sun