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Mexican Onyx

Banded calcite quarried around Tecali de Herrera in Puebla, turned into spheres, hearts, lit panels and stone furniture.

Buy Mexican Onyx Spheres, Hearts and Lit Decor Cut From Banded Puebla Calcite

Mexican onyx is banded calcite, a calcium carbonate stone deposited layer by layer in caves and around cold springs, and it is a different mineral entirely from the black chalcedony that jewellers call onyx. Astro Gallery of Gems buys this material by the block, commissions the turning and polishing, and weighs and photographs every finished piece, so the 13 spheres, hearts, lamps and tables gathered here each carry their own banding, diameter and weight rather than a catalogue average.

Puebla and Baja California Supply the Banded Calcite Sold as Mexican Onyx

Two Mexican districts account for almost all the onyx marble reaching the American decorative trade, and the district shows itself in the colour. Astro Gallery buys blocks with the banding already visible on a sawn face, then has each one oriented so the layers wrap a sphere completely rather than stopping halfway.

Tecali de Herrera, PueblaTecali de Herrera and the neighbouring workings at San Antonio Texcala yield the green and honey banded calcite that gave onyx marble its Mexican reputation. Layers here run fine and parallel, which is why Tecali blocks turn into spheres with unbroken concentric rings.
Baja California spring depositsThe onyx beds at El Marmol in Baja California built up around cold carbonate springs and produced the palest cream and white stock in this group. That material passes the most light, so a lamp or a window position changes how it reads.
Iron and manganese colouringTrace iron and manganese tint the growth layers, so one block moves from creamy white through yellow into green, grey or chocolate brown. Astro Gallery photographs several faces of each sphere because the reverse rarely repeats the front.
Calcite chemistry and hardnessMexican onyx is calcium carbonate at Mohs 3 with a specific gravity near 2.71, soft enough to mark with a copper coin and quick to fizz against dilute acid. That chemistry governs both the polish and the care routine.

Translucency Separates a Lit Piece From a Shelf Piece

Light passing through banded calcite earns this stone its price and decides what a piece is for. Astro Gallery photographs the heavier onyx twice, under reflected light and again with a lamp behind it, so both states are settled before a buyer commits.

Worked to be lit from behindSawn panels glow amber, green and blue when an LED sits behind them, and the banding becomes a graphic that exists only while the light is on. The blue agate desk lamps here join dyed slices over a custom metal base with a transformer, standing around twenty inches.
Read on reflected lightSpheres, hearts and table tops work the opposite way, returning a waxy vitreous sheen so the bands look painted rather than illuminated. These pieces hold a room in daylight and want a surface near a window rather than a bulb.

Forms Cut From Mexican Onyx, by Weight and Footprint

Weight settles where a piece can live long before colour enters the conversation. The tiers below cover everything currently turned, sawn or assembled here, from a gift sized heart to a stone table that needs two people to move it.

Form and weightWhat sits in it and who buys it
Polished hearts, 150 grams to a third of a poundGreen, brown and honey banded hearts near two and a half by three inches, the entry point of this room and the form that carries most of the gift buying.
Small spheres, around a pound and a halfThree to three and a quarter inch diameters in white, grey, green and honey, light enough for a bookshelf and stable on a simple ring stand.
Display spheres, three to five poundsFour to four and a quarter inch gemmy banded spheres whose concentric rings resolve from across a room and which anchor a console or a coffee table.
Lit decor, sixteen pounds and upSawn stone panels joined over a custom metal base with built in LED lighting and a transformer, sold singly or as a matched desk pair.
Stone furniture, thirty five poundsA jasper and agate round table two feet across and eighteen inches high, the heaviest work in this room and the only form that travels by freight.

What Each Mexican Onyx Piece Costs Right Now

Every row below points at one physical object with its own measured diameter and weight. Prices track the catalogue rather than a printed sheet, so a sphere that sells drops straight out of this table.

PieceDetailPrice
Polished Banded Green Onyx Heart from Mexico See listing $ 49.99
Genuine Polished Brown Onyx Heart from Mexico See listing $ 49.99
Genuine Polished Gemmy Pink Onyx Sphere from Mexico (3 lbs) 3 lbs $ 200.00
Genuine Polished Gemmy Banded Onyx Sphere from Mexico (4.9 lbs) 4.9 lbs $ 200.00
White and Grey Onyx Sphere from Mexico (1.5 lbs) 1.5 lbs $ 59.00
Genuine Polished Banded Green Onyx Sphere from Mexico (3 lbs) 3 lbs $ 150.00
Weight and diameter stated before you buyAstro Gallery records the measured diameter and the weight on every listing and sends further photographs on request.
View all 13 pieces Request photographs

Mohs Three Changes What Counts as a Fault

Calcite behaves nothing like quartz on a shelf, so the checks that matter here differ from the ones a buyer applies to agate or jasper. Four of them show clearly enough in listing photographs to settle before payment.

Etching against scratchingA scratch cuts the surface while an etch dulls a patch where something acidic has sat. Astro Gallery describes both conditions in writing, since an etched area on calcite cannot be buffed back at home.
Fill and stabilisationSofter blocks carry natural voids that some workshops fill with resin before the final polish. Any fill on a piece here appears in the description, because filled ground takes light differently once a lamp goes behind it.
Band continuity around a sphereA turned sphere either carries its rings unbroken across the equator or breaks the pattern where the block ran out. Several faces appear in each gallery so the wrap is checked rather than assumed.
Natural colour against dyeNatural calcite colour runs through the layer and shows the same green or honey at a chipped edge as it does at the surface. Dyed material concentrates near the skin and pales the moment an edge is examined.

The AAA description used on several of these listings means something specific for banded calcite: even parallel banding, a mirror polish free of orange peel, and no undisclosed fill. Where a piece falls short of that standard, Astro Gallery says so in the description ahead of checkout rather than after delivery.

Words Mexican Onyx Listings Use

Onyx marbleThe stone trade name for banded calcite cut as decorative material. It shares a word with chalcedony onyx and nothing else, neither chemistry nor hardness nor price.
TecaliThe Puebla town whose quarries supply most green and honey banded calcite, used across the trade as shorthand for that particular colour range.
BandingThe layered growth structure left by rhythmic carbonate deposition, and the single feature that decides most of the price on a sphere or a heart.
GemmyApplied where the calcite passes light instead of blocking it, so the piece keeps visible depth rather than reading as flat painted stone.
TravertineThe coarser, porous carbonate that forms in the same spring systems. Onyx marble is its dense, translucent and polishable relative.
EffervescenceThe fizz calcite gives off against a drop of dilute acid, the fastest field separation from quartz and the reason acidic cleaners are banned.

Keeping a Calcite Polish Intact

Mexican onyx etches at hardness levels ordinary household life reaches every day, so the routine is short and strict. Dust it dry with a soft cloth, and where a piece needs more, use lukewarm water with a drop of pH neutral soap and dry it immediately. Vinegar, lemon, bathroom sprays, wine and cola all attack calcite and leave a dull grey patch no cloth will lift. Keep a felt pad or a coaster under anything standing on wood, seat spheres in a ring stand rather than loose on a hard surface, and store hearts away from quartz and agate, which will scratch them inside a drawer.

Where Mexican Onyx Goes in a Room, and What Buyers Call It

Interior buyers treat banded calcite as a warm counterweight to cold material, setting a honey sphere against brass and walnut or grouping green hearts in odd numbers along a console. Lit pieces earn a different job, since a glowing panel doubles as a light source at the end of a sideboard or beside a bed. Gift buyers reach for the hearts, which travel safely and suit weddings, anniversaries and housewarmings, while a four inch sphere carries a milestone gift on weight and presence alone.

A second vocabulary runs alongside that one. Crystal sellers describe banded onyx as a grounding and protective stone tied to the root chakra, and feng shui buyers place a sphere to soften a sharp corner. Astro Gallery documents material, weight, dimensions and treatment on every listing, uses those trade terms because buyers search with them, and makes no health, healing or energetic claim about any piece in this room.

Ordering, Packing and Delivery on Heavy Onyx

Payment runs through Shop Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay or a Visa, Mastercard, Discover or Diners Club card, and each order generates an itemised invoice naming the piece, its weight and its measured dimensions. Astro Gallery of Gems has packed soft stone for transit since 1961 and treats calcite as fragile by default: spheres travel cradled so no point load reaches the polish, hearts are wrapped individually, and anything above a pound leaves double boxed. Parcels go tracked and fully insured at declared value with customs paperwork prepared in advance for international addresses, while the lamps and the stone table move by freight against a quote you approve first.

Rated everywhere we trade

4.6★849 reviews 99.5%138,000 sold 4.7★404 reviews 4.5★126 ratings #128of 1,994 4.1★119 reviews
Ask for the piece lit and unlitAstro Gallery will photograph a sphere or a panel under a lamp and again in daylight so translucency is settled before you decide.
Browse the onyx Email the gallery

Questions Buyers Ask Before Ordering Mexican Onyx

Is Mexican onyx real onyx?
Mexican onyx is banded calcite, sold throughout the stone trade as onyx marble, and it is a different mineral from the black chalcedony onyx used in jewellery. Both names are correct within their own trade, and every listing here names the material so the distinction is settled before you buy.
How much does a Mexican onyx sphere cost?
Price follows diameter, weight and the quality of the banding, so a three inch sphere sits well below a gemmy four and a quarter inch one. The table above carries the live figure for each piece currently in stock, taken straight from the catalogue.
Will the piece I receive match the photograph?
Several listings here are stocked in quantity and marked as stock photographs, in which case a similar size, weight and quality specimen ships to you. Ask before ordering and Astro Gallery photographs the actual piece being reserved, banding and all.
How do I clean Mexican onyx safely?
Dust it dry, and for anything more use lukewarm water with pH neutral soap followed by an immediate dry. Vinegar, citrus, alcohol and bathroom sprays etch calcite permanently, so every acidic cleaner stays away from the polish.
What sizes do these onyx spheres come in?
Current spheres run from three inches at roughly a pound and a half up to four and a quarter inches near five pounds, and the hearts sit around two and a half by three inches at gram weights. Each listing states diameter and weight before you order.
Can Mexican onyx sit outdoors or in a bathroom?
Keep it indoors and out of wet rooms. Calcite dissolves slowly in water and reacts to the acids in cleaning products, so a bathroom shelf or a patio position will dull the polish within a season.
Do you ship heavy onyx and stone tables internationally?
Yes. Parcels travel tracked and fully insured with customs paperwork completed before dispatch, and the lamps and the stone table move by freight against a quote you approve before any charge is taken.
Can I return a Mexican onyx piece?
Yes. The published returns policy covers every piece of banded calcite sold here. Requesting the measured diameter and extra photographs beforehand settles the question of scale for most buyers before anything is packed.

Where Mexican Onyx Sits Beside the Rest of the Catalogue

Buyers reach this stone from two directions. Some want the material and follow calcite and onyx into other cuts and other carbonates, while others want a silhouette and compare a banded sphere against agate, jasper or septarian worked into the same shape.

Same form, other stones
Spheres Polished hearts Polished eggs Palm stones
Banded and carbonate stone
Onyx Calcite Agate Septarian Jasper
Lit and large decor
Stone lamps Home decor Large carvings Geodes
Gift budgets
Gifts Gifts under 100 Stone carvings Bookends
Before you order
Shipping and returns About Astro Gallery Mineral specimens