Goldstone beads

Goldstone is glass - with flecks of copper suspended in it. The glass is created in a reducing furnace (no oxygen), while copper salts are added. The furnace "smelts" the copper salts back to copper, which then crystallizes. The copper platelets suspended in the glass give Goldstone it's characteristic glitter. Now, isn't that more than you needed to know?

Historically, Goldstone has been around since the European Renaissance. Stories say that it was discovered by early Venetian monks working at a glass factory (hence, the alternate name - Monkstone) - who were practicing alchemy. By accident, molten copper tipped into a container of molten glass. This crystallized into thousand of tiny crystals and formed a melt of glass with millions of tiny, golden light sparkles.

Thus, a happy accident gives us this sparkly stone today.

We have recently sourced some goldstone from a new supplier (look for product numbers that start with "s") - and I just have to add - this is flat out - the NICEST goldstone I have seen in easily 20 years. This is very richly sparkly - alive with glitter. Some has coarse and some is finer grained, but this is way superiour to the goldstone we usually see. If you have passed on goldstone in the past - I urge you to re-visit it - this is some darned-nice stuff!

Goldstone is also known as aventurine - not to be confused with the natural stone called aventurine. The most common base colour is an earthy brick red, but midnight blue and deep forest green are also available.

Lampworkers also use goldstone in beadmaking, and it is also used in handmade marbles, where it is known as "lutz." However - we don't suggest melting these beads down to use in your lampworking, as the COE may not match your glass.