Tiger Eye

Tiger eye is quartz that grew through fibres of crocidolite, replacing them so faithfully that the stone kept their silky, parallel structure. The result is its signature trick: a band of light that moves across the surface as you turn it, like an eye following you. Lapidaries call the effect chatoyance — 'cat's eye' — though this particular cat is larger.

Roman soldiers reportedly carried tiger eye into battle as protection. The crystal tradition has kept the martial association but softened it usefully: this is the stone of nerve rather than aggression — paired with the solar plexus chakra, with Leo and Capricorn, and with the unglamorous virtues of confidence, follow-through and not abandoning the plan at the first setback.

It is, frankly, a handsome thing — golden brown, banded, warm against the skin — which may explain why it has never gone out of fashion since the Victorians rediscovered it.

The tradition pairs the stone with a practice: name the thing you intend to see through, and let the stone keep the note. A glance at the wrist before the difficult conversation — that is the whole ritual, and it is enough.

We carry it in bracelets and couple sets, tumbled stones, pendulums and tea-strainer bottles. The banding is nature's own; every piece patterns differently.