Tiger's eye from South Africa, polished on 1 side, on a base.

Tiger's eye is a type of quartz. The colour of the stone is yellow-brown to brown, streaky and opaque. Locations include Africa, India, Mexico, California and Australia. Tiger's eye is created by the merging of black-blue asbestos fibres called crocidolite. This creates solid inclusions of hair-like crystals in the quartz. The oxidation of the original crocidolite fibres creates the golden-shining limonite fibres of the stone. Tiger's eye is so called because the stone has a light reflection that is reminiscent of a tiger's eye. This slit-shaped light effect is called chatoying or the 'cat's eye effect'. When the stone is cut cabochon (ball), the beautiful cat's eye effect is best visible. The colour of the stone gives it its name: the red variety is called Cat's Eye, the blue is Falcon's Eye and the yellow is Tiger's Eye (golden yellow, golden brown).