16-Inch Gemstones
The 16-inch strand is the industry standard—and no one stocks more of them than Dakota Stones. Browse more than 200 stone types across every color and pattern, from everyday staples like Amethyst and Jasper to collector favorites such as Red Garnet and rare Turquoise mine-runs. Because the strands measure a full 15 – 16 inches, you get enough beads for matching earring pairs, stretch bracelets, or a necklace focal and still have extras for accents.
Need to drill down fast? Use the filter bar to sort by Stone Type when you know the gem you want, or by Color when you’re building a palette first. Shapes range from classic rounds and rondelles to cubes, heishi, chips, and rare designer cuts—each strand calibrated for even sizing and smooth stringing.
Whether you’re a hobbyist replenishing a bead board or a pro assembling a full production run, this category is the workhorse of our catalog: reliable lengths, vast variety, and new additions arriving every month. Dive in, filter your way to the perfect strand, and keep your design queue flowing with Dakota Stones’ biggest collection.
Products: 2264
African Turquoise 10mm Round AAA Grade - 15-16 Inch
African Turquoise is not actually Turquoise, but rather a speckled teal Jasper found in Africa and often treated to simulate the beautiful blue to ...
View full detailsPlum Tourmaline 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Tourmaline is classified as a semiprecious stone and occurs in a vast array of colors, everything from colorless to black, from pastel to bright to...
View full detailsBicolor Sunstone 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Sunstone, a variety of Feldspar, is aptly named for its shades of gold, orange, red and brown, as well as its iridescent sparkle. As the stone catc...
View full detailsPeruvian Chrysocolla 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Chrysocolla, a hydrous copper silicate, is often mistaken for turquoise due to its rich blues and blue to greens. It often also occurs with colors ...
View full detailsGreen and White Jade 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Jade refers to an ornamental mineral, mostly known for its green varieties. Jade has been used for tens of thousands of years, initially as tools b...
View full detailsBlack Mica 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Mica is a mineral name given to a group of minerals that are physically and chemically similar. They are all silicate minerals, known as sheet sil...
View full detailsLavender Amethyst 10mm Round AAA Grade - 15-16 Inch
Lavender Amethyst is a transparent lavender variety of Amethyst, which forms in geodes and is generally found in clusters of crystal points. The pr...
View full detailsOrange Calcite 10mm Round AAA Grade - 15-16 Inch
Calcite is a rock-forming mineral that is extremely common and found throughout the world in sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Calcite i...
View full detailsFluorite 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Fluorite is a luminous, soft and glassy stone, sometimes referred to as “the most colorful mineral in the world.” It is one of the most sought to a...
View full detailsRussian Amazonite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Russian Amazonite is a translucent blue to green to green or light green stone, occurring with inclusions of white, black or yellow. It is named fo...
View full detailsJadeite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Jade refers to an ornamental mineral, mostly known for its green varieties. Jade has been used for tens of thousands of years, initially as tools b...
View full detailsBlue Lace Agate 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Blue Lace Agate is a naturally occurring soft blue agate, laced with bands or swirls of brighter blue, periwinkle, white and occasionally gray or b...
View full detailsAustralian Chrysoprase AA 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Chrysoprase is a bright apple green, translucent stone, whose color often caused ancient jewelers to confuse it with Emerald. A cryptocrystalline C...
View full detailsLabradorite 10mm Heart AA Grade - 15-16 Inch
Labradorite is remarkable for the way its aggregate layers refract light, creating iridescent flashes of blue, gold, pale green or copper red. This...
View full detailsViolet Aqua Terra Impression Jasper 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Aqua Impression Jasper has been dyed to an aqua or turquoise blue color. It contains inclusions of tan and crimson, which dramatically complement t...
View full detailsWampum Shell 10mm Heishi - 15-16 Inch
Wampum is made from one of the hardest and most beautiful shells in the world: the Northern Quahog, a clam found along the New England coast. The w...
View full detailsAmazonite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Brazilian Amazonite is an opaque blue to green to light green stone, often occurring with inclusions of white, yellow or gray and occasionally tran...
View full detailsCrystal Quartz 10mm Nugget A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Crystal Quartz is a naturally occurring clear and colorless Quartz. It is a crystalline form of Quartz said to have many divine properties includin...
View full detailsOrbicular Rhyolite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Rhyolite is a volcanic, igneous rock with high silica content. Its name is taken from the Greek word “rhyax,” meaning “a stream of lava.” It is che...
View full detailsWood Rhodonite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Rhodonite, whose name is derived from the Greek word for Rose, “rhodon,” is known for its pink, red and magenta hues. A Manganese inosilicate (or c...
View full detailsPetrified Wood Opalite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Wood Opalite is a type of petrified wood that has been impregnated with the Silicon Dioxide commonly known as Opal. Wood Opalite occurs in a range ...
View full detailsWhite Lace Red Jasper 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
White Lace Red Jasper is a deep red or burnt orange stone, complemented by white, gray, and black bands and flecks of color. Red Jasper has histori...
View full detailsVerdite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Verdite is a light to dark-green metamorphic rock, and is a variety of Fuchsite, which is itself a form of Muscovite. It appears green because of t...
View full detailsTree Agate 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Tree Agate is not banded like other Agates, and therefore is not an Agate in the strictest terms. Rather than banding, Tree Agate has dendritic inc...
View full detailsSmoky Quartz 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Smoky Quartz is a translucent smoky brown or gray variety of Quartz. It ranges from almost completely transparent to an almost opaque brownish to g...
View full detailsSunset Dumortierite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Sunset Dumortierite has a much brighter palette than regular Dumortierite, from light blue to lapis blue to cobalt, as well as some occurrences of ...
View full detailsRed Jasper 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Red Jasper is an aggregate of microcrystalline quartz and/or chalcedony and other minerals. The opaque stone’s red color is due to high iron conten...
View full detailsPrehnite 10mm Round AAA Grade - 15-16 Inch
Prehnite was the first mineral to be named after a person: its discoverer, Dutch Colonel Hendrik Von Prehn. Von Prehn discovered the stone in South...
View full detailsPicture Jasper 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Picture Jasper is a form of brown Jasper characterized by its unique banding and flow patterns created by petrified or silicate mud and occasional ...
View full detailsNew Jade 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Jade is the industry name for this beautiful deep green stone. Ours is actually a Serpentine, but takes a trained eye and a microscope to discern t...
View full detailsGolden Tiger Eye 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Tiger Eye is a macrocrystalline Quartz stone with bands of rich golds and browns. Its chatoyant layers that create a flash which seems to emanate f...
View full detailsFlower Obsidian 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Essentially a volcanic glass, Obsidian ranges in color from opaque black, to green, brown, mahogany, black with rainbow colors, black with snowflak...
View full detailsEagle Eye Stone 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Similar to Tiger's Eye, this gemstone in its polished state looks like what it would be like to capture smoke in a stone -- bottomless black mixed ...
View full detailsCrystal Quartz 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Crystal Quartz is a naturally occurring clear and colorless Quartz. It is a crystalline form of Quartz said to have many divine properties includin...
View full detailsCarnelian 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Carnelian is a glassy, translucent stone that can appear with such bright orange hues that the ancient Egyptians called it “the setting sun.” Most ...
View full detailsGreen Chalcedony 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Blue Chalcedony is a naturally occurring soft blue translucent stone. It is a member of the Quartz family, a form of silica with a cryptocrystallin...
View full detailsYellow Calcite 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Calcite is a rock-forming mineral that is extremely common and found throughout the world in sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Calcite i...
View full detailsBlack Obsidian 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Amethyst 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Amethyst is a beautiful purple stone, known as a “Gem of Fire” by ancient cultures. It has been greatly sought after throughout history and was at ...
View full detailsAfrican Green Jasper 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
African Green Jasper is a single to colored opaque stone, ranging in color from a deep olive green to a pale spring green with brown banding or str...
View full detailsAfrican Petrified Wood Agate 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Petrified Wood Agate is formed from the petrifaction process of primeval trees over the course of many years. Petrification occurs when the wood is...
View full detailsYooperLIKE 10mm Round - 16-Inch Strands
YooperLIKE is a Syenite rock that is rich with fluorescent Sodalite. While fairly nondescript under normal lighting conditions, YooperLIKE explodes...
View full detailsVariscite 10mm Round A Grade - 15-16 Inch
Variscite is a hydrated aluminum phosphate is formed when phosphate-rich water reacts with aluminum-rich rocks near the surface. In its purest form...
View full detailsTrolleite 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Trolleite is an extremely rare aluminum phosphate mineral that crystallizes in the form of masses and small prismatic crystals. It is made up of qu...
View full detailsCopper Sunstone 10mm Round - 15-16 Inch
Sunstone, a variety of Feldspar, is aptly named for its shades of gold, orange, red and brown, as well as its iridescent sparkle. As the stone catc...
View full detailsSelenite 10mm Round Purple Pink (Dyed) - 15-16 Inch
Selenite is a crystal formed from the mineral gypsum, which comes in many forms and color variations, but has been used historically to describe th...
View full detailsSelenite 10mm Round Green Yellow (Dyed) - 15-16 Inch
Selenite is a crystal formed from the mineral gypsum, which comes in many forms and color variations, but has been used historically to describe th...
View full detailsSelenite 10mm Round Green Pink (Dyed) - 15-16 Inch
Selenite is a crystal formed from the mineral gypsum, which comes in many forms and color variations, but has been used historically to describe th...
View full detailsFrequently asked questions
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What is a 16-inch strand and why is it the trade standard?
A 16-inch strand is the working length most US jewelry designers buy for design-grade work — necklaces, multi-strand layouts, and bulk component sourcing. It gives enough beads to lay out a full 18–20 inch necklace with clasp and findings, or to cut down into shorter assemblies without running short. The 16-inch length has been the trade default for decades because it standardizes pricing and bead-count math across stones and cuts. Dakota's 16-inch hub covers the full catalog at this length, across rounds, rondelles, faceted cuts, cubes, coins, and shape work. The bracelet counterpart is the 8-inch strand. -
How many beads per 16-inch strand at common sizes?
Approximate bead counts per 16-inch strand assume snug-strung beads with no spacer drift. At 2mm you get roughly 200 beads, at 3mm about 135, at 4mm about 100, at 6mm about 66, at 8mm about 50, at 10mm about 40, and at 12mm about 33. Faceted cuts, rondelles, and irregular shapes (pebble, nugget, coin) vary — count is driven by the bead's drilled axis, not its widest dimension. Exact count should be disclosed; ask before buying if a piece-count is critical for your design and isn't specified. -
16-inch vs 8-inch — which length for which project?
16-inch is the necklace and design-strand length: enough material for an 18–20 inch finished necklace, multi-strand torsades, long earring drops, or component cutting. 8-inch is the bracelet length: pre-cut to the wrist standard, sized for stretch-cord bracelets and single-wrap pieces. Designers running production bracelet lines typically buy 8-inch to skip the cut-down step; designers doing necklace work, statement pieces, or mixed assemblies buy 16-inch for the bead count and pricing efficiency. Both lengths share the same stones and cuts where stocked — the choice is about finished-piece geometry, not material grade. -
What stones and cuts does Dakota carry in 16-inch?
The 16-inch hub spans the full catalog. Most-stocked stones include agate, turquoise, quartz, jasper, tourmaline, moonstone, garnet, labradorite, opal, and amazonite, with deeper coverage across feldspar, chalcedony, and silica varieties. Cut coverage runs from smooth round and faceted round (the largest categories) through rondelle, microfaceted round, pebble and nugget, cube, table-cut cube, faceted cube, and coin. Standard sizes are 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, and 10mm, with 2mm and 3mm in microfaceted work and 12mm in larger statement rounds. Filter by stone, cut, or size to narrow the grid. -
How does Dakota measure 16-inch strand lengths?
Strand length is measured end-to-end along the drilled axis, beads strung snug with no gaps. A 16-inch strand can run 15.5 to 16.5 inches depending on bead shape and how the cutter finished the temporary string — irregular shapes (nugget, pebble, raw-faceted) sit at the looser end because the drill points don't always center on the bead's midline. Bead count per strand reflects this variance. Length and approximate count should be disclosed; if you need a tight tolerance for a calibrated production run, ask before buying so the team can pull and measure before shipping.