Rings & Things Jewelry Blog

No gemstone is more creatively striped by nature than agate. This distinct and dramatically banded variety of chalcedony is composed of quartz layers. This composition varies greatly and can be of many colors. The other chalcedony family, jasper, has less-regular patterns and is less defined than the agates. Another difference between the two is that agates tend to be translucent (or at least contain translucent bands), while jaspers are generally opaque. This distinction stems from agate being …