Amethyst Pear-Shaped Briolette Bead

This pear-shaped amethyst briolette bead is features a flattened profile and is faceted around its entire surface, giving it an attractive light-catching quality that looks great when used for pendants, drops and earrings. String these beads with small metal beads or matching- or complementary-color stone beads between them to create a drop necklace or use them individually to create earring drop designs—if used to create a necklace, add small beads between the briolettes to ensure the strand lies flat. Amethyst is the best known and most valuable form of quartz. The light-to-dark purple color of natural amethyst is caused by iron or manganese compound impurities in the mineral and can range from a watercolor pale pink to a dark, almost opaque, purple.