Fakebusters: Bumble Bee Jasper
Hello dear Fakebusters!
Today we are going to look at some of the fakes being sold as bumble bee jasper. Ordinarily this stone is incredibly striking, with gorgeous yellow, orange and black being the predominant hues.
Now I am sure amost anyone can spot this as a fake, seeing that it isn't even the correct colours.
Mind you, neither is this one, yet both were listed as bumblebee jasper.
This was a far more successful fake, and it took me a few minutes to deduce that it was not bumble bee jasper, and what exactly it was. The giveaway was the little circular patterns, which gave the stone a webby appearance. This is crazy lace agate, and I suspect that the colours have been enhanced a little.
Speaking of enhanced colours, this dreadful image is of real bumble bee jasper, but the colours have been tweaked beyond all recognition. This was probably an effort to make it look like a higher quality piece.
This one isn't a fake as such, but it is extremely low quality. There is very little of the classic sulphur present, with little to no yellow and absolutely no orange. Unless the specimen really calls to you, I would avoid buying this quality.
This one also has the same issue. All the beautiful orange around the edge is the most desirable, but in this piece it is entirely eclipsed by the dowdy brown matrix. Honestly it should have been discarded.
Just for fun, I have to post this one. Who would ever associate this odd blue material with bumble bee jasper? I cannot begin to explain this one.
This is so close as a fake that it is almost diabolical.
There are 2 things to know about here:
The stripe down the left hand side is a dark bottle green.
The online market has been flooded with ocean jasper with yellow orbicules lately.
The texture of the yellow is much more like this new ocean jasper, and the green confirms the identity of the suspect.
Nope. This is probably a lemon serpentine, but definitely not a bumble bee jasper. It is far too green.