Rhodonite Tumbled Stone

Rhodonite is a manganese silicate - (Mn,Fe,Mg,Ca)SiO₃ - whose rose-pink colour is the manganese itself. Mohs 5.5 to 6.5, it takes a good polish and is most often opaque, the pink crossed by black veins and patches.

Those black markings are manganese oxide, formed as the manganese near the surface weathered - the same metal that makes the pink, in its darkened form. In this stone the veining is heavy, a bold web of black through rose.

The name comes from the Greek rhodon, rose, for the colour. Rhodonite is close kin to rhodochrosite, the banded pink manganese carbonate, but harder and more thoroughly veined.

Asked often

What makes the pink and the black?
Both are manganese. The rose-pink is manganese in the silicate; the black veins are manganese oxide, formed where the surface weathered. One metal, two colours, in the same stone.

Is the colour natural?
Yes - the pink and the black are the stone’s own minerals, untreated. The heavy black veining is natural to this material, and unique on every bead.

Is it hard-wearing?
Reasonably - Mohs 5.5 to 6.5, a little softer than quartz. It takes a fine polish; keep the cord dry and spare it hard knocks.

How do I look after them?
Wipe with a soft cloth. At Mohs 5.5–6.5, a little softer than quartz - spare them hard knocks.

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 little 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, so spare them hard knocks.

• Stone: Rhodonite · manganese silicate
• Hardness: Mohs 5.5–6.5
• Character: Rose-pink with black manganese-oxide veining
• Treatment: None · untreated
• Form: Tumbled stones · polished, each unique · sold in a set
• Origin: Peru
• Care: Wipe with a soft cloth · spare hard knocks

Rhodonite was the prized rose stone of imperial Russia, cut from great deposits in the Urals and worked into bowls, columns, and inlays for the Russian court; one vast block was carved into a sarcophagus. Like malachite, it was a material of state, valued for its colour and its size.

For its rose colour the stone was carried as a token of the steady, warm heart across the cultures that worked it - named here as what people believed. The pink is manganese; what it is taken to hold is the wearer’s.