Chrysocolla

Chrysocolla has a pretty cyan color and is a minor ore of copper. It varies in hardness from 2.5 to 7.0. Associated minerals are quartz, limonite, azurite, malachite, cuprite, and other secondary copper minerals. A mixture of these minerals in a stable stone often makes beautiful material for jewelry. Generally, the darker blue chrysocolla is too soft to be used in jewelry, the cyan and green is usually harder, around a 6, but can be tricky with different hardnesses in the same piece, also making it easy to chip or difficult to polish evenly. Chrysocolla chalcedony is a form of chrysocolla that forms in quartz deposits and can be very hard, making it a great choice for jewelry.

Chrysocolla is typically found as botryoidal clumps, or vein fillings. Because of its color, it is sometimes confused with turquoise.

The name comes from the Ancient Greek, chrysos kolla, "gold glue", in allusion to the name of the material used to solder gold, it was first used by Theophrastus in 315 BC.

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