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Daily Wire Tip March 9: What is Blue Ocean Stone?

By on March 9, 2010
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Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip
March 09, 2010

Question:

I recently had a customer ask if I have a “Blue Ocean” or “Ocean Blue” stone.  She would like a pendant made out of this stone  I can only find “online stores with chips” in already made products. I have searched the Wire Sculpture website for this stone and could not find it.  Do you have any idea what this is and where I can find it?

Answer:

Your question immediately intrigued me, as I had never heard of either ‘Ocean Blue’ or ‘Blue Ocean’ as the name of a natural gemstone. After contacting a few of my mineralogist friends and a bit of my own research, our results are: the only natural rock material named and called ‘Ocean Blue’ is a type of granite, basically a blue-gray color with bluish black streaks, that is most often used for countertops and the like. All of us know of many jewelry supply items that are named/called ‘Ocean Blue’ or ‘Blue Ocean’ as a sales technique; the ‘Ocean Blue’ quartz you can find is glass; AAA grade blue chalcedony, larimar and some turquoise and lapis have also been called by either name as well. You might give your customer a call and ask where they saw this material and go from there.

Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong

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16 Comments

  1. avatar

    Mary Bennett

    March 9, 2010 at 8:15 am

    I believe the stone that is being called Blue Ocean or Ocean Blue is Larimar …named after the blue ocean and the first miner’s daughter.

  2. avatar

    Edie Edwards

    March 9, 2010 at 8:15 am

    Dale,

    I had a customer asked once before for a Ocean Blue stone also. After showing her different stones it turned out what she was calling Ocean Blue was London Blue Quartz.

    Edie

    • avatar

      dalecgr

      March 9, 2010 at 10:26 am

      Thanks Edie.
      Folks, I’d like to take this opportunity to let you know that there IS a ‘natural’ blue quartz (and it would be named and sold as ‘Blue Quartz’) however in the quality that is necessary to be considered a ‘gemstone’ (transparent to translucent, most likely with uneven color) it is extremely expensive. Be aware that the product being sold today that is called ‘London Blue Quartz’ is the same as Cherry, Pineapple, etc – meaning it is glass. For more information about natural blue quartz, please follow this link: http://www.quartzpage.de/blue.html

  3. avatar

    Anne0135

    March 9, 2010 at 8:38 am

    I just bought one of these on eBay. Search on: BEAUTIFUL DEEP BLUE COLOR LARIMAR FOCAL BEAD. This might be what she means?
    Good luck.
    Anne

  4. avatar

    Chris Adam

    March 9, 2010 at 9:24 am

    Maybe Aquamarine

  5. avatar

    JULIE LAIBLE

    March 9, 2010 at 10:27 am

    Thanks everyone! I thought the same thing that Dale thought. I could find the granite, which of course, was not what my customer was talking about. Anne, I did the search, and after a few websites I found “Larimar USA”. I placed an order for some cabs. My customer will be extremely happy! I noticed most websites referencing this as Deep Blue Larimar…Thanks again.
    Julie

  6. avatar

    Terry Murray

    March 9, 2010 at 11:24 am

    How different minds work…
    I would have guessed the customer was talking about the blue-green color of a gem-stone. And I would had shown them an opal with a blue-green play of color.

  7. avatar

    Maria

    March 9, 2010 at 11:43 am

    a similar request was made by a customer, turns out she wanted “beach glass” or “sea stone”; my customer also calls them beach rocks.

  8. avatar

    Kathy D

    March 9, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    She may be referring to larimar.

  9. avatar

    nancy beegle

    March 9, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    Hi, Everyone —

    I have also been seeing a stone similar to the one described by Dale called ocean jasper. I know there’s o “blue” in the name, but the stone looks like the granite Dale described. I wonder if that could be it. Good luck, all the same, and I’d be curious to know what your client tells you.

    ninib :)

  10. avatar

    Barb

    March 9, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    A new find of Zoizite (Tanzanite) is called Ocean Blue. It is rare and rare and rather expensive.
    Another stone is Paraiba Tourmaline. Good quality is indeed the color of the ocean…also expensive.

  11. avatar

    Liz R

    March 10, 2010 at 12:21 am

    could be aquamarine, ocean jasper or Iolite which is Water Sapphire, a beautiful blue translucent stone. Good luck.

  12. avatar

    Mary Phillips

    March 10, 2010 at 7:36 am

    I too thought of Ocean Jasper when I read this. It’s a really fascinating stone and can contain all sorts of colors but generally is not blue – tends towards tans, greens, reds.

  13. avatar

    Rebecca Prescott

    March 10, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    Hi, The name of the stone (Ocean Blue) your customer requested is actually Sea Blue |Chalcedony) which by the way is mentioned in the Bible. Hope this is helpful.

    • avatar

      dalecgr

      March 10, 2010 at 7:16 pm

      Yes, Rebecca, the stone ‘could’ be chalcedony, however without actually seeing it, ‘we’ cannot be sure : ) thanks!

  14. avatar

    Tami Brewer

    March 10, 2010 at 10:17 pm

    The Ocean blue that they may be asking about is blue glass that is found on the beaches of oceans. I saw some information about it on Discovery or the Travel Channel I can’t remember which. This is glass bottles that have been broken and rolling around in the ocean and getting a natural tumble on them. Adventually they wash up on the beach most of them just like tumbled stones. These are the newest gemstones. The rarest ocean glass is Red.