Blood Stone Crystal Bracelet

Bloodstone is a dark green chalcedony - microcrystalline quartz, SiO₂, Mohs 7 - spotted and streaked with red. The green is the body; the red is iron oxide, the same mineral that colours jasper, gathered into flecks and small veins.

Each stone is marked differently: some carry a scatter of fine red points, others bold streaks across a near-black green. The Greek name heliotrope, "sun-turner," comes from an old account of how the polished stone reflected the light.

Called green jasper with red spots in the old lapidary books, bloodstone takes a smooth polish at Mohs 7, hard-wearing as all chalcedony is.

Asked often

What makes the red spots?
Iron oxide - the same mineral that reddens jasper - gathered into flecks and veins within the green chalcedony. Each stone is spotted differently, and the markings are natural.

Is the colour natural?
Yes. The green body and the red spots are both the stone’s own minerals, untreated. No two pieces carry the same pattern.

Why is it called heliotrope?
From the Greek for "sun-turner," an ancient name tied to an account of how the polished stone caught and turned the light. Bloodstone is the older common name in English.

How do I care for it?
Wipe with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry. Hard-wearing at Mohs 7 and stable in daylight; keep the cord dry.

1. Worn on either wrist, over the hand, on a durable elastic cord.
2. Wipe with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry.
3. Hard-wearing at Mohs 7 and stable in daylight - no special handling beyond keeping the cord dry.

Many traditions rinse or air their stones from time to time; that is a matter of preference, and the rest is yours.

The elastic cord lasts longest kept dry - remove before swimming, bathing, or applying scent. Do not soak.

• Stone: Bloodstone · heliotrope · green chalcedony
• Composition: SiO₂ with iron oxide
• Hardness: Mohs 7
• Colour: Dark green with red flecks · each unique
• Treatment: None · untreated
• Band: Durable elastic cord
• Origin: India
• Care: Wipe with a soft cloth · keep the cord dry

Bloodstone was prized through antiquity and the Middle Ages as a carving stone, cut into seals, amulets, and intaglios; Pliny described the heliotrope in the first century, and medieval lapidaries ranked it among the most valued of the chalcedonies. The red-flecked green made it unmistakable on a signet.

For its markings the stone was carried as a token of courage and the steady nerve of the soldier across many cultures - named here as what people believed. The spots are iron in green stone; what they are taken to signify is the wearer’s.