Description
Two 8 millimetre strands sold together. The first is entirely black. The second lets a band of brown and gold tiger’s eye run through, stopped by an engraved bar in blackened metal. It is the contrast of temperature that makes this duo.
Tiger’s eye is a quartz that replaced, fibre by fibre, a blue asbestos called crocidolite. The fibres are gone, their orientation stayed, and the iron they contained rusted into the golden brown. The band of light that slides across the bead as you turn it is the reflection off those parallel fibres: that is chatoyancy, and it is measurable, not interpretive. Pairing obsidian with other stones goes into these mixes.
The catalogue already offers a single strand mixing tiger’s eye and obsidian. This one differs on two points: these are two bracelets, and the brown is concentrated on half a strand instead of being spread out. The result reads from a distance as a warm block set on black, where the mixed strand gives a speckled effect. Both are here.
One reservation about tiger’s eye. It is a stone very often dyed in the trade, in red and blue especially, and even in brown you find brightened batches. This one is natural brown, and the check is simple: a dyed stone shows a colour that stops dead in the cracks, whereas natural chatoyancy follows the fibres. I check with a loupe, and I say so because few sellers do.
Crystal lore ties obsidian to grounding and tiger’s eye to watchfulness, by analogy with its name. None of that is proven, and no piece of jewellery heals anything. I have gathered separately what tradition attributes to obsidian, in the conditional from start to finish.
- Two bracelets sold together, 8 mm obsidian and tiger’s eye beads.
- Natural brown tiger’s eye, undyed, checked with a loupe.
- Engraved bar in blackened metal, threaded like a bead.
- Hand-strung in France on braided elastic cords, no clasp.
What to know before you wear them
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The specifications
- Stones
- Black obsidian, natural brown tiger’s eye
- Bead diameter
- 8 mm
- Trim
- Engraved bar in blackened metal
- Contents
- Two bracelets
- Wrist size
- 17 to 19 cm, elastic
- Stringing
- Braided elastic cords, no clasp
- Stone origins
- Mexico, South Africa
- Gender
- Men
- Brand
- Bijoux Obsidienne
Orient the tiger’s eye, or it looks at nothing
A tiger’s eye bead has a direction, and it does not show while it sits in the bag. The fibres are parallel, the band of light runs across them, and if the hole is drilled along the fibres, the band turns around the hole and becomes invisible from the front. So each bead has to be threaded while pivoting it until the band crosses the cord. In an ordinary batch a third of the beads are drilled the wrong way and will never be good for anything.
This duo exists because the catalogue’s mixed strand did not suit those who wanted plain brown. Spreading tiger’s eye one bead in three gives a speckle; grouping it gives a mass. It is the same pairing, strung with an opposite intention. Both are here and the obsidian guide explains the stone.
A third of tiger’s eye beads are drilled along the fibres. The band turns around the hole, and you never see it.
Obsidian and tiger’s eye do not mind water, but the metal’s black patina wears faster with soap. Take the bracelets off before the shower and before sport. A soft dry cloth, never an ultrasonic bath. Cleaning an obsidian piece covers the rest.
