Picture Jasper

Picture Jasper is an opaque, microcrystalline variety of Quartz displaying color banding, veining and depositional flow patterns. Other minerals impurities in the quartz may add color to the Picture Jasper. Picture Jaspers are cut and polished by lapidarists to display inscenes or pictures that can be seen in the variations of bandings and flow patterns. The inscenes or pictures often look like landscape patterns and can be in a wide range of colors. Picture Jasper is one of the most sought after and famous varieties. Picture Jasper occurs in nodules or as fillings in fissures and may be found the world over, usually named for the specific localities where it is mined. Picture Jasper forms most often in shades and combinations of brown, gold- to reddish-brown, black, blue, tan, gray or ivory.