Red Jasper Tumbled Stone

Red jasper is chalcedony - microcrystalline quartz, SiO₂, Mohs 7 - so densely included with iron oxide that it is fully opaque, unlike the translucent carnelian it is kin to. The iron gives a deep, even brick-red to terracotta.

Jasper takes a smooth polish and reads as solid colour, sometimes crossed by darker veining or flecks where the iron gathered. No transparency: this is the most earthbound, claylike member of the quartz family.

Its name descends through Latin and Greek from older roots across western Asia, all meaning a spotted or coloured stone - jasper has been named, in one form or another, for thousands of years.

Asked often

Is it dyed?
No. The red is iron oxide included through the chalcedony as it formed - natural, and the reason jasper is opaque where clearer quartz is not.

How is it different from carnelian?
Both are iron-coloured chalcedony. Carnelian is translucent orange-red; red jasper is opaque brick-red, with far more iron and no transparency. Same family, different density.

Why is it completely opaque?
Jasper carries so many fine mineral inclusions - iron oxide above all - that light cannot pass through. The opacity is the stone’s nature, not a flaw.

How do I look after them?
Wipe with a soft cloth. Hard-wearing at Mohs 7 and stable in daylight; they need little care.

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; hard-wearing at Mohs 7 and stable in daylight.

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; hard-wearing at Mohs 7. Keep them together in a pouch so harder edges do not scratch softer stones.

• Stone: Red Jasper · opaque iron chalcedony
• Hardness: Mohs 7
• Character: Opaque brick-red to terracotta
• Treatment: None · untreated
• Form: Tumbled stones · polished, each unique · sold in a set
• Origin: India
• Care:Wipe with a soft cloth · keep dry

Red jasper was among the first stones humankind carved. It was cut into seals and amulets across ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, polished into the signet rings of the classical world, and named in nearly every ancient language of the region. Few materials have been continuously worked for so long.

For its colour, red jasper was carried as a stone of endurance and the steady ground underfoot across many cultures - named here as what people believed. The red is iron through stone; what it is taken to steady is the wearer’s.