Diamond Lover answers:

Formerly it was obtained almost exclusively from the area of Miass in the Ilmen mountains, 50 miles southwest of Chelyabinsk, Russia, where it occurs in granitic rocks. More recently, high-quality crystals have been obtained from Pike's Peak, Colorado, where it is found associated with smoky quartz, orthoclase, and albite in a coarse granite or pegmatite.

Crystal Peak, Teller County, Colorado is another well-known locality for crystals of amazonite. Some other localities in the United States yield amazonite, and it is also found in pegmatite in Madagascar.

Diamond Lover answers:

Amazonite is a semi-precious green or blue-green stone. It was thought to contain copper, but it's now thought to contain lead and water that cause the green colour. It is sometimes polished and used as a semi-precious gem, but it fractures easily.

Tumbled amazonite stones are not very expensive. They can add a welcome flash of colour to a drab area when used as decoration, and they can look stunning in jewellery in the right setting..

In crystal healing, amazonite is primarily a woman's stone. It's supposed to help with menstrual problems, for example.

Diamond Lover answers:

You can search under semi-precious stones/us

Diamond Lover answers:

Amazonite is just one of the many minerals of the entire feldspar group of minerals -- the most abundant minerals on Earth. The feldspars are the major constituent minerals of many igneous and metamorphic rocks, forming at medium- to high-temperature and at some depth (hence, pressure).

The microcline varieties can form in granite pegmatites and at lower temperatures. Amazonite is one of the microcline varieties.

Diamond Lover answers:

My eye stopped on the word "swirls" as natural minerals rarely, if ever, show curved markings. The description you give of your stone makes me think of the many glass imitations of turquoise, jade and many other stones that were produced before other better synthetics were developed. The R.I. Of 1.6 is well within the correct range for glass.

The trick with distant vision R.I. Readings, by the way, is to get the drop of contact fluid small enough and fiddle about with the focus on the refractometer until it is just right. Have you taken the S.G. Yet?

Anyway, I would recommend that you spend a bit of time looking at your stone under the microscope, as the glass imitations all contain a gas bubble or two close enough to the surface to be seen, if you look hard enough.

Another trick to tell glass imitations is to use the tip of your tongue. Allow your stone and a piece of something like quartz to stand for 10 min or so to let them reach room temperature then pick up each with tongs and touch it on the tip of your tongue, the glass will feel distinctly warmer than the natural crystal (doesn't work with opal, amber, jet and a few other things but it is very useful).

To be honest your stone does not sound like azurmalachite and amazonite will never show a swirled structure. Good luck with your gem testing.