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Unlike the off-center oval seedbeads that\'ve borrowed their name, magatama were originally \"curved jewels\" like the ones here, carved into a distinctive shape that resembles a drop of water, a tongue of flame, or a sprouting seed. Most of the versions I\'ve had lately have been rather flattened commas, but I\'ve started to dig up some longer, rounder ones that\'re closer to Wikipedia\'s informal description of \"a baseball with a tail\".
These are made of cape amethyst, which is translucent/opaque and has a much softer pastel color than the transparent deep violet of classical amethyst. It\'s still a quartz-based mineral, but presumably has a lower concentration of chromophoric ions and a finer-grained crystal structure. Their colors range from light pansy-purple to a dusk-tinged dove grey, sometimes color-zoning from one side of the gradient to another; individually, their visual textures may include faint tone-on-tone stripes like blue lace agate, white stipples and splotches of natural inclusions, or the aforementioned color-zoning like pale mist partly shadowed by sunset.
The listing is individually priced: one purchase = one magatama, though of course you can make multiple purchases if you need more than one. Their dimensions are about 35mm long, 20mm wide, and 12mm deep through the 3mm-diameter borehole.
Please check my other listings, and thanks for looking! ^_^
