The semi-precious stone Jasper is an impure and opaque variety of silica which is usually yellow, red or brown. If the colors appear in bands or stripes, then it is called banded or striped jasper. This stone could be used as a gemstone or for ornamentation. It could also be highly polished and then used for the creation of seals, vases and even snuffboxes.



The name jasper actually means "spotted stone", and has been derived from Old French jaspe, from Anglo-French jasper, from Persian yashp and from Latin iaspidem.

There are many types of jasper. It could come as an opaque that has visible shades of red which due to some mineral impurities. The patterns could arise from the process of formation and from the flow patterns that occur in the volcanic ash or sediment which has been saturated with silica in the process of forming jasper, ultimately yielding several swirls or bands on the rock.

Jasper could also be permeated by some dendritic minerals that provide the of some vegetative growths. IT may have been fractured or probably distorted after formation, and then later rebonding into multiple discontinuous patterns or also filling with another material. Environmental factors or heat could have created surface rinds like varnish or interior stresses that led to fracturing.

One type would be the Egyptian jasper or an Egyptian pebble would be a brown jasper which occurs as nodules found in the Libyan desert as well as in the Nile valley. Also another type would be the Leopard jasper which is also called the Orbicular jasper. This type, which is a kind of Chalcedony, is mainly made of silicon dioxide. It is typically an opaque combination of gray, black, tan along with reddish-brown circles and spots of color, which is why it has been given its name.