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Types of Brown Stone Jewelry

Jewelry made of brown stones can be surprisingly elegant. A large variety of stones can be used for jewelry. They can be polished into beads for necklaces or earrings, into cabochons or faceted jewels, or as cameos to be put into brooches, rings or pendants. The colors can range from a warm honey brown to reddish brown to dark brown.

Tiger's Eye, Chalcedony, Others
- Tiger's Eye quartz can come in a reddish-brown hue, with a lustrous texture. It's called Tiger's Eye because light is reflected from inclusions of other minerals inside the quartz and creates the illusion of a cat's eye. Smoky quartz and citrine, which can come in a brown as well as golden form, are also used for gemstones. Chalcedony, a form of silica, comes in many varieties. As brown or tawny agate, in legend it supposedly guarded against poisonous reptiles and made a warrior victorious. Sard is also a semiprecious stone. The stone is sometimes confused with the redder carnelian, but sard is brown and harder. Chrysoberyl can also come in brown crystals that can be formed into honey-colored cat's eye gems. It's most commonly found in Brazil.
Corundum and Others
- Corundum, the second hardest mineral after diamond, is usually associated with sapphires and rubies, but it can also come in brown varieties. Brown sapphires are prized less highly than blue sapphires but are still valued as gemstones. Apatite is a hexagonal, prismatic crystal that comes in brown and other colors. It's very common around the world -- some apatite is found in guano deposits in Chile -- and it's used as a gemstone, though it is soft and its color will fade upon exposure to ultraviolet light.
Grossular and Others
- Grossular is also a silicate and beautiful crystals are found all over the world and cut and sold for jewelry. Titanite, also called sphene, is a hard and heavy mineral. It comes in a dark brown form, the more attractive of which can be cut into gems. Brown crystals of Vesuvianite are found in calcareous blocks from Mount Vesuvius and Monte Somma in Italy as well as Mexico. They're sometimes polished and used as jewelry. Vesuvianite has a vitreous or resinous lustre and is transparent or translucent.
Ferroaxinite and Others
- Brown semiprecious stones can be carved into beautiful cameos.
  
  Ferroaxinite is a rare brown or clove brown gemstone with sharp edges. Diopside crystals can come in brown and can also be used for gems if they're transparent. Rhodonite is a pinkish-brown crystal that can also be polished, faceted and used as beads or cabochons. Thomsonite is usually white, but impurities can make it brown. It's occasionally cut as cabochons.

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