Clare's Cool Crystals of the Week — 13 October
Well, this week's delivery was one for the collectors. A whole crate of rare mineral specimens landed on my counter — proper display pieces, a few names I had never had in the shop before, and colours you would hardly believe come out of the ground just like that. There is a great big garden quartz cluster at the top that I keep refusing to put away, and a rainbow-filled opal pendant at the end. Nearly every one is a single piece, so it really is first come, first served.
Tap any photo or name to see it on the website.
1. Garden Quartz Raw Cluster
Why I love it: This is the biggest, chunkiest piece we have currently finally hitting the website and it has been sitting on my counter all week because I keep picking it up. Clear quartz crystals rising off a pale base, every one of them coated in earthy brown and green mineral growth, so the whole thing looks like a wee landscape in stone. Garden quartz (also called lodolite) is quartz that captured other minerals such as chlorite, iron oxides and feldspar as it grew, which is why no two pieces are ever alike.
£299.99 — Shop it here
2. Erythrite Specimen - Rare
Why I love it: The colour on this one is almost unreal — a bed of deep crimson-pink bladed crystals on dark matrix, with pale crystals scattered through. Erythrite is known as “cobalt bloom” because that extraordinary red comes from cobalt, and the name itself is from the Greek erythros, red. Morocco's Bou Azzer district produces the finest crystals in the world. This one is for display only, so do wash your hands after handling it.
£49.99 — Shop it here
3. Honey Calcite Cluster
Why I love it: Golden honey-coloured blades radiating out in spiky sprays from a pale matrix, and it catches the shop lights beautifully from every angle. Calcite is one of the most common minerals on Earth and forms in more crystal shapes than almost any other, and this warm golden colour comes from traces of iron. Geologists identify calcite by dripping weak acid on it — it fizzes.
£69.99 — Shop it here
4. Rosasite Specimen
Why I love it: Velvety sea-green and turquoise crusts spread right over a rusty matrix, with little sparkling pale crystals peeping through underneath. That velvet look is because rosasite grows as tiny rounded balls of radiating needles rather than flat faces. It is a copper zinc carbonate named after the Rosas mine in Sardinia, and the famous Ojuela Mine in Mexico is one of the world's best places for it.
£29.99 — Shop it here
5. Mesolite in Basalt Freeform
Why I love it: ALways my favourite stone. A standing freeform of grey basalt that opens into a crystal window, and tucked inside is a delicate spray of hair-fine white mesolite needles. It is like having a tiny cave you can peer into. Mesolite is a zeolite that grows in the old gas bubbles of volcanic basalt — India's Deccan basalts are famous for it — and its name means “middle stone” because its chemistry sits between natrolite and scolecite.
£69.99 — Shop it here
6. Crocoite Specimen
Why I love it: Small, but the colour is extraordinary — glowing orange-red crystals packed across the whole piece. Crocoite is lead chromate, and the element chromium was first discovered in it back in 1797; the name comes from the Greek word for saffron, after that colour. The Red Lead Mine in Tasmania is the most famous locality on Earth for it. Display only, so wash your hands after handling.
£19.99 — Shop it here
7. Chrysanthemum Stone Specimen
Why I love it: Two crisp white flower bursts standing out against dark stone — it really does look like someone has pressed chrysanthemums into the rock. The “petals” are radiating crystals of celestite or calcite that grew inside dark limestone or mudstone. It is also known as Flower Stone and has been prized in China for centuries, and every single flower pattern is unique.
£29.99 — Shop it here
8. Afghanite Specimen
Why I love it: A soft sky-blue rarity, and a proper collector's piece — it comes in its own display dome. Afghanite was only described in 1968 and is named after Afghanistan, where it was found in the lapis lazuli mines at Sar-e-Sang. It belongs to the cancrinite group and is rarely found in pieces of any size at all. Best bit: many afghanites glow orange under longwave UV light.
£49.99 — Shop it here
9. Golden Rutile Quartz Semi-Polished Piece
Why I love it: A chunky semi-polished piece of clear quartz criss-crossed with fine golden needles, which is exactly why rutile in quartz gets nicknamed Angel's Hair. Those needles are rutile — titanium oxide — and they grew inside the quartz as it formed. Rutile is an important source of titanium, which ends up as the white pigment in paint and sunscreen. Hold this one up to the window and the needles light right up.
£49.99 — Shop it here
10. Ethiopian Opal Swirl 925 Sterling Silver Pendant
Why I love it: My one piece of jewellery this week, and it had to be this one. A bright oval Ethiopian opal absolutely full of rainbow flash, held in an elegant 925 sterling silver swirl. Opal is not actually a crystal at all — it is silica gel holding up to 20% water, set solid over millions of years — and its play of colour comes from tiny silica spheres stacked in neat rows that split light like a prism. Welo opal is famous for those bright, rolling flashes.
£219.00 — Shop it here
See everything that's just landed in New Arrivals, or pop into the shop at 61 South Street, St Andrews to see them in person. Free UK postage on orders over £29.98.
Lots of love, Clare x
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