Roaring Tiger Bracelet Onyx & Tiger Eye

From the Greek "onyx," meaning "nail." In myth, Cupid trimmed Aphrodite's nails, and the clippings turned to stone.

A variety of chalcedony. Most commonly seen as solid black, though true onyx carries black and white banding. Since Roman times, that banding has been carved in relief to produce cameos—the natural contrast between layers used directly as light and shadow. The structure of the stone became the medium of expression.

Found in Brazil, India, and Uruguay. One of very few stones used without interruption from antiquity to the present.

Discipline — Boundary — Resolve

Fixes the axis. When external influence presses in, boundaries sharpen. The density of the black reads as the density of intent — material and metaphor collapse into one.

• Durable in daily wear — no special precautions required

The standard form of tiger's eye. Crocidolite replaced by silica, iron oxidised to gold. The band of light that moves across the surface when the stone is turned—chatoyancy—is its defining feature.

The Northern Cape of South Africa is the world's largest source. Traded at considerable value until the eighteenth century, when the discovery of major deposits in South Africa brought prices down sharply.

Across cultures, a stone with "tiger's eye" in its name has been consistently linked with the power to see through. People have always tried to read something in an animal's gaze. That impulse gave one mineral this name.

Clarity — Optimism — Ease

A lighter action than Golden Tiger Eye. Less about force of will, more about the field of vision brightening until options appear on their own. It lets air into decisions that have become too heavy.

• Durable in daily wear — no special precautions required