Agate is the oldest stone people put on a string. It is banded chalcedony — the layers form inside a cavity and are later cut through, so every bead shows a slice of a pattern made before anyone touched it.
The colors here
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Red agate is the classic strand, most often cut as plain rounds or as rice beads.
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Nanhong agate is a deep, dense red with almost no visible banding, and it is usually left smooth.
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Yellow agate runs from honey to a toasted amber, and shows its banding more clearly than the red.
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Green and white agate are the cool end — green for balance pieces, white for calm.
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Cracked and dyed agate is heated or treated so the pattern breaks into lines. It is a different look at a different price, and it is marked as such here.
Cut and setting
Most of this collection is plain beads. Where agate meets metal it is a link bracelet or a wire wrap, not a setting. Several strands pair agate with sandalwood, which softens the red considerably.
Agate is the most named stone in gemstone writing, and also the most misdescribed. Fire agate is not an agate at all, which is worth knowing before you buy one.
Wearing it
Agate is quartz by another name, so it takes daily wear without trouble. The dyed and cracked strands should stay out of long sun.
Pick the pattern first — plain, banded, or cracked — and let the color follow.
