Dragon skin 18 Eyed black agate Dzi bead, Tibet, circa 200 BC-200 AD. Market value for ancient beads can easily ...

Dragon skin 18 Eyed black agate Dzi bead, Tibet, circa 200 BC-200 AD. Market value for ancient beads can easily reach into hundreds of thousands of US dollars - especially for beads with more "eyes." Tiny red spots caused by iron inclusion in the agate also increase the value. New dzi prices range from about ten to two thousand US Dollars, depending on quality and luster. Length: 68 mm; Weight: 44.41 g; Mohs hardness: 9.0; Condition: used, smooth on touch, tender superficial lace network of beautiful fine craquelures; The last 9 images represent the surface of Dzi bead at x50 magnification. 18 Eyed Dzi Bead: Moderation and tolerance. This Dzi can help to protect against obsessions and compulsions. Helps to protect against addictive personality traits. Alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual addiction, gambling and all other addictions. Brain stories, rutting, worry, drama, trauma may all be eased with this Dzi bead. The bead imparts calm as well as grace and ease, allowing the owner to find moderation in all areas of life. Can help to protect against imbalance which can lead to hyperactivity as well as obsession and compulsive tendencies. Obsessive and compulsive personality traits tend to build more karma and less merit. More karma and less merit will lower states when re-incarnating. Assists in clearing all pathways and blockages for the kundalini to rise. Helps to maintain balanced kundalini once it has risen. https://mydzi.blogspot.com/search?q=DZI+Bead https://mydzi.blogspot.com/2007/05/some-new-dzi-beads-with-cracks.html Dragon Skin Dzi Bead: At first look the bead will appear to be very weathered full of weathering marks and perhaps cracks. Well, it is not weathering marks, it is crackle marks. The dragon skin is formed by burning. Tibetans named this effect on the Dzi bead as 'Dragon Skin'. The dragon skin texture is created during in a certain event. Lamas (Tibetan Monk) offer the Dzi bead to Buddha as a thanksgiving. They put the Dzi bead into a stove and start burning. At the same time while the stove with the Dzi bead is burning, hundreds of Lamas (monks) started their chanting. Finally, the Dzi bead comes out of the stove with 'Dragon Skin' texture. Dragon skin Dzi beads are all very, very old as this particular ritual has not been done in hundreds of years. In addition to the burning of the bead the bead needs to be very old before it will change into the dragon skin texture. When younger beads are put in the stove to burn the result is the "Fire Burial Dzi Bead". Authorities on DZI beads often use dragon skin texturing as a way of identifying age of a bead. Many of these beads can be (+) or (-) 2,000 years old. Dzi bead (Tib. གཟི།; pronounced "zee"; alternative spelling: gzi) is a type of stone bead of uncertain origin worn as part of a necklace and sometimes as a bracelet. In several Central Asian cultures, including that of Tibet, the bead is considered to provide positive spiritual benefit. These beads are generally prized as protective amulets and are sometimes ground into a powder to be used in traditional Tibetan medicine. Beads subject to this process have small "dig marks" where a portion of the bead has been scraped or ground away to be included in the medicine. Some dzi exhibit grinding and polishing of one or both ends, again the result of reduction for use in traditional Tibetan medicine or, in some cases, due to the bead's use as a burnishing tool in the application of gold leaf to thanka paintings or gilt bronze statuary. The most highly prized dzi beads are those of ancient age, made of natural agate. The original source of these beads is a mystery. While the traditional, ancient-style beads are greatly preferred, new modern-made dzi are gaining popularity among Tibetans. Dzi stones made their first appearance between 2000 and 1000 BC, in ancient India: a few hundred thousand were supposedly brought back by Tibetan soldiers from Middle Asia during a raid. The malicious effect of the “evil eye” was taken very seriously by these people. Dzi were considered to counteract the evil eye. Technology: The artisans who made the dzi created amulets with “eyes” on them as a “fight fire with fire” form of protection. Artisans used agate as the base stone, and then embellished the beads lines and shapes using ancient methods that remain mysterious. Treatments may have included darkening with plant sugars and heat, bleaching and white line etching with natron, and protecting certain areas with grease, clay, wax or a similar substance. A hole was drilled before the bead was decorated as drilling caused most breakage during the production process, and holes were also useful for stringing and dipping numerous beads as a step in coloration. The earliest holes were conical and done with solid drill bits drilling from both ends and, hopefully, meeting near the center of the bead. Very small drill tips of chipped flint were used without abrasives and numerous other materials, regardless of hardness, when used with abrasives. Neolithic era beads were also drilled with hollow, tubular abrasion driven bits of reed and, later, during the Chalcolithic, copper. These drilled a hole with a core of agate inside the tubular drill. Tubular bit holes were parallel walled rather than conical, but also done from both ends. Both methods required arduous work done with a bow drill, with time and effort being determined by hardness of abrasive, from ground sand (quartz) to corundum.