These are a few of my favorite things...

Mmmm, shiny, yummy, flash heavy Labradorite.  My mother absolutely loves this stone.  And why not?  It is utterly covered in charm and flash.

As feldspars go, it is a wonderful gray stone, with fantastic blue and green 'flash' or shiny sparkles within the stone.  It comes in traditional gray color which is impressive.  Related to Moonstone (close enough to call sister stones) it is also related to Sunstone (also called red or orange labradorite) and Larvikite (black labradorite) as well as Spectrolite (Blue Labradorite). 

 Traditional "gray" labradorite in its natural form.

Spectrolite (blue labradorite made with 'Tahitian' colored peacock pearls)








My mother loves this stone not only for its inherent flash, but also its healing and 'mystical' properties.  Apparently there is an old Eskimo legend that tells of the northern lights being imprisoned in the stone found on the coast of Labrador.  While labradorite is famously found in Labrador, in Canada--the most sought after gem quality versions of this stone are from Finland.

Labradorite is said to help with visions--as in help you see the path you should be on.  It is used in healing and to purge oneself of negative attitudes.

My only personal issue with Labradorite is that my mother loves it so much I can not bear to pass up at least one strand of labradorite at any given gem and jewelry show I go to.  I always find some amount of stone she would simply adore and therefore have a  ridiculous amount in my personal collection as well as in my shop.

Onyx

I usually avoid Onyx personally because often I do not think that as a stone it holds much personality.  However--once I began researching it for this blog I found how terribly wrong I was. 
While onyx in it simplest form is a varient of a type of quartz--I often only see it is the black as coal stone seen below:

(from celticjewelry.com)

However--onyx is a fascinating and ancient stone, used by Egypt in houseware construction, used by Romans and the stone is even mentioned in biblical references.    And further, its sister stone Sardonyx is often misunderstood and misrepresented--probably unintentionally though not all banded stones that seem to be prevenlantly sold as Sardonyx are as hard and lasting a stone as true onxy and sardonyx.

I have used onyx in jewelry designs myself--my mother terms it a protection stone as are most black stones. My sister Jenny particularly prefers it, and as such I usually do not put Onyx on my site as almost all that I purchase goes to her as a gift.

Sardonyx on the other hand is sometimes sold as Jade in Asia--as my husband brought me many jade housewares from his tour in Korea, which I was grateful for, but still told him promptly they were in fact Sardonyx.  Nonetheless, upon further research I see that since it was from Pakistan it was likely one of the lesser stones labeled wrongly.

(from charmsoflight.com)

This a a red banded sardonyx, stunning in person and sometimes sold as a simple banded agate. Because of the banding in these stones a piece of perfection is impossible to achieve and the uniquness should be emphasized as every piece will be in fact, one of a kind--no matter how many stones from the same deposit one purchases.





Here is an interesting answers.com listing of Onyx--as you can see they call it a chalcedony.
Onyx