Red jasper is a relatively inexpensive gemstone for jewelry-makers looking for a rugged, warm, earth-toned stone. According to Wikipedia, jasper is a form of chalcedony (silica) that usually occurs in earth tones such as red, yellow, and brown, and the red jasper gets its distinctive color from iron deposits [1].(COPYRIGHT: I'm so sorry to have to put this here, but I've had trouble with online content theft. Readers are welcome to print my articles for their personal use, but I do not allow my text or photos to be copied to anyone's online site. No one may use my content without written permission from me.)
In the first photo, you can see a cube of red jasper, measuring about 0.5 inch. It's an opaque brick red color as are the small round beads to its left. Moving clockwise across the photo you can see the two large orange beads in the left corner, which are carnelian. Carnelian is also a variant of chalcedony (silica), but usually has a semi-transparent quality that lets in the light and gives it a warm glow lacking in red jasper.
In the second photo, I'm holding the same red jasper cube and one of the large carnelian beads up to the light so you can see how the light suffuses the carnelian bead while reflecting off the opaque surface of the jasper cube.
Back in the first photo, you can see a candy-apple red cube of coral next to the jasper cube. The contrast shows you the deep earth tone characteristic of jasper as opposed to the almost synthetic-appearing red of the coral cube. Next to the coral cube are three round coral beads and five deeper-toned jasper beads of the same size. To the far right is another bright red coral cube. Both of these photos should give you an idea of the opaque, high-gloss appearance of red jasper and the deep, reddish-brown aspect of its color.Red jasper is a great choice for men's jewelry due to its rugged, masculine appearance. It pairs well with turquoise and leather and can be used to make striking Native American style bracelets, chokers, and earrings. You can alternate red jasper beads with other beads in the red spectrum from the bright red of coral to the soft complementary glow of carnelian to the brown and tawny tones of tiger-eye. Because red jasper often contains streaks of black or gray, you can also work with the contrasting colors of black onyx and hematite. (See my article on hematite.)
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper, retrieved 9/25/10.
