With its soft blue color, Blue Lace Agate is known as a soothing stone. It is also considered a stone of communication, promoting confidence & understanding. Blue Lace Agate is sometimes referred to as the Stone of the Diplomat, helping to ensure calm words with articulate meaning. Since agate has a slower vibration frequency than most stones, it is valued as a stabilizing gemstone.
Easily recognized for its blue banded layers of bright blue, white & sometimes brown hues, Blue Lace Agate is a variegated chalcedony, more specifically a variety of quartz. The color can vary from a very pale to quite intense sky blue. The color is not pigmented (like Lapis Lazuli) but caused by tiny inclusions, which result in an effect called Rayleigh scattering, the same effect that gives the sky its blue color. Blue Lace Agate is composed of microscopic crystals. The intricate swirls & loop patterns are caused by the presence of the minerals iron, manganese, nickel, titanium, & others.
Agates typically form as nodules or geodes in igneous rocks. When an empty pocket or hole inside a porous rock fills & the molecules begin to crystallize, bands of agate form. The color & banding patterns vary depending on pressure, temperature & the mineral content.
The color can vary from a very pale to quite intense sky blue. The color is not pigmented (like Lapis Lazuli) but caused by tiny inclusions, which result in an effect called Rayleigh scattering, the same effect that gives the sky its blue color.
