Bonsai – Tiger’s eye with bird

Tiger’s Eye is a quartz variety with a golden to red-brown colour and a unique light-effect. This effect is called chatoyance, after the eye of a cat, because the effect looks like a thin line, similar to a cat’s eye in low light. In Tiger’s eye it is caused by parallel crystals in the quartz. Chatoyance can also be found in other minerals, but its rarer in those. The name Tiger’s Eye is of course also based on this. The colour of Tiger’s Eye is caused by limonite (iron oxide/rust) in the quartz. The red variant can appear naturally, but is very rare. More often the ‘normal’ Tiger’s Eye is heated by people to obtain its red colour. There is also a blue variety, called Falcon’s eye. There is a slight difference in origin, which causes the difference in colour.