Colorful Dyed Tumble Stones

Tumbled stones are often treated with dye to alter their color. If you see tumbled stones with outrageous colors, those stones have probably been dyed. The purpose of the color alteration is usually to increase their visual appeal and marketability. Sometimes they are dyed for a special event or project. The stones selected for dye treatment are usually nice in every way - they simply have a color that is plain, weak, or uninteresting. Sometimes stones are heated in a dye solution. The heating causes the stone to expand and any pores or fractures are more easily penetrated. Sometimes hot stones are dropped into cold solutions because the sudden temperature change will cause fractures to propagate through the stone. These fracture serve as channels for the dyed solution to penetrate.