Handcut Quartz bead necklace. The yellow-green chartreuse colour of these Handcut Quartz beads is extraordinary. The clarity of these gemstone beads is excellent; there are natural inclusions in some of the beads but one must look very carefully to discern them. Every bead is cut differently, and the seemingly random facets only serve to enhance the limpid translucence of the material.
This colour and quality in Quartz is uncommon, and these beads would have been cut from the same large crystal, a crystal large enough to allow for the cutting of 29 beads of matching colour, with a total weight of almost 435ct. There exist very few areas in the world where such a large crystal might be found, and the Minas Gerais state of Brazil, north-west of Rio, where the above “chartreuse” Quartz material is said to originate, is one such area.