3mm Magnesite tubes, golden yellow, 16 inch strand.

These pictures depict what typical strands look like. These beads are practically identical from strand to strand.

These adorable little barrel shapes measure at 3-3.5mm wide, and 5mm tall. Average strand weighs about 7 grams. These tiny little strands have beautiful brown matrix that naturally occurs in magnesite, will make great wrap bracelets or as filler beads.

Magnesite beads have been on the market for the past 3-4 years, and have become infamous for being sold as natural turquoise by internet sellers (even numerous boutique/stores) across the country. Natural magnesite range from white to light brown and some even has natural veins, so when dyed to different colors such as blue, it looks almost identical to turquoise. It is very abundant, meaning the raw material is very cheap. So understandably, it can get frustrating knowing that such cheap material is out there claiming to be the much more expensive turquoise. The truth is, magnesite is a natural stone that is stronger than turquoise and absorbs color beautifully without fading. Because of all these excellent qualities of magnesite, designers in the jewelry market started to order magnesite in all sorts of bright colors to compliment different types of jewelry. Which explains the plethora of different colored magnesite in the market past couple of years. Despite the negative reputation of magnesite, in my opinion, it truly is the perfect affordable alternative to turquoise and many other solid-colored stones. At June Jewels, you'll never have to worry about distinguishing between what's real and what's not on my site because every item here is properly represented and accurately described.