Clare's Cool Crystals of the Week — 30 October
Well, this week's boxes were a joy to open. Spheres, flames, carved feathers and the tiniest butterfly wings, and I have spent far longer than I should turning them over in the window light instead of getting on with my jobs. Here are the ten I keep coming back to. Nearly all of them are one-offs, so once they are away, they are away!
Tap any photo or name to see it on the website.
1. Kazakhstan Fluorite Sphere
Why I love it: This is the one I could not put down. Bold vertical zones of deep purple, near-black and caramel gold run right round the sphere, with a sparkling white band cutting through the middle like frost. Fluorite grows in colour-banded layers, which is why no two spheres are ever the same, and it is the mineral that gave us the word fluorescence.
£39.99 — Shop it here
2. Moonstone Sphere
Why I love it: Our biggest Moonstone sphere, in soft peach and dove grey, with a blue flash that chases across the surface as you turn it in the light. That shimmer has a proper name, adularescence, and it happens when light scatters between microscopically thin layers inside the feldspar. Moonstone has been carried as a traveller's talisman for centuries.
£99.99 — Shop it here
3. Sodalite Flame
Why I love it: Royal blue with one bold white stripe running the full length of the flame. Four Sodalite flames arrived together and this is easily the most graphic of them. Sodalite takes its name from the sodium in it, and those pale veins are usually calcite that filled the gaps as the rock formed.
£29.99 — Shop it here
4. Bloodstone Sphere
Why I love it: Deep forest green, scattered all over with vivid red patches. Bloodstone is a green chalcedony, which is a form of quartz, freckled with red jasper, and its old name is heliotrope. It is March's birthstone, and tradition has it carried by soldiers and athletes as a token of strength.
£29.99 — Shop it here
5. Fire Quartz Butterfly Wings
Why I love it: A pair of wee carved wings on a silver butterfly stand, in icy clear quartz shot through with bold streaks and clouds of deep red and orange. That colour is not dye, it is hematite, an iron oxide, grown inside the quartz as it formed, which is why Fire Quartz is also known as hematoid quartz.
£19.99 — Shop it here
6. Silver Sheen Obsidian Flame
Why I love it: Tilt this one towards the window and the whole flame glows silver. Obsidian is natural volcanic glass, formed when lava cools far too quickly to crystallise at all, and the sheen comes from countless microscopic bubbles trapped and lined up inside the glass.
£24.99 — Shop it here
7. Amazonite Bunny Carving
Why I love it: The sweetest wee rabbit, in pale seafoam green with creamy veining and a soft pink blush across the face and flank. Amazonite is a green variety of the feldspar microcline, and it takes a lovely satin polish. The carved ears and paws have come out beautifully on this one.
£24.99 — Shop it here
8. Blue Apatite Butterfly Wings
Why I love it: The strongest colour of all the butterflies that landed this week: vivid teal fading to turquoise, with darker navy mottling through both wings and a nicely matched pair on the stand. Apatite's name comes from the Greek for to deceive, because it is so often mistaken for other minerals.
£19.99 — Shop it here
9. Trolleite Feather
Why I love it: Trolleite is a rare blue aluminium phosphate and an unusual thing to see carved at all, so a whole feather of it is a treat. Pale aqua blue and cream, with a dark grey streak down one side and a sugary sparkling band through the centre, standing upright on its own little stand.
£19.99 — Shop it here
10. Flower Agate Feather
Why I love it: Creamy white and blush pink, with soft peachy plumes blooming across the feather and a gently frosted finish. Those flowers are plumes of white chalcedony that grew inwards from the edges of the stone, so every piece blossoms differently. Flower Agate comes to us from Madagascar.
£19.99 — 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
Comments