Click picture to see entire image:

Cost per bead:

8.4 cents per bead

Bead material:

Glass

Country of origin:

Czech Republic

Size/shape:

6mm (from hole to hole) x 8mm (wide) bell flower beads with the hole through the middle of the flower.

Colors/description:

Translucent alexandrite with a golden brown metallic coating.  Alexandrite glass looks fuchsia or violet in daylight and incandescent light, and light blue in fluorescent light.

Hole size:

1mm (estimated).

Defects:

The beads appear to be in good shape.

How photographed:

At the window in natural daylight.

Comments:

As stated above, alexandrite beads look fuchsia or violet in daylight an incandescent light, and light blue in fluorescent light.  The picture shows the beads (more or less) as they look in daylight.  However, I fixed up the picture at night under fluorescent light, under which conditions they looked light blue, so I had to estimate how the beads look in daylight, and I may not have gotten it right.  Since I was estimating their appearance in daylight, its possible that the color could be a little richer or duller, or the beads could be a little lighter or darker.  I'm just not sure if I got it right.  (Cameras are not fool-proof, and it is almost always necessary to make adjustments to the photos to get the beads looking right.)

There's one more noteworthy thing about the picture:  Usually when I photograph alexandrite beads, they come out of the camera looking light blue (even though they may have looked violet to my eyes as I photographed them).  I have no idea why these particular beads came out looking violet in the picture.