One of my favorites! Opalite is actually not a natural crystal at all. It is a man-made synthetic glass, but it makes beautiful tumbled pieces and comes mostly in clear colors. Often it will have a milky appearance and sometimes have iridescent shine much like my little specimen here. Because it is man made, I... Continue Reading →

Dalmatian stone is a predominately quartz and feldspar stone, with its "spots" being black tourmaline or other inclusions dependent on the formation area. This crystal is often called Dalmatian jasper, but it actually is not a jasper at all. It is an igneous rock, looking similar to granite with a higher felsic content. It is... Continue Reading →

Day 2: Fluorite!! One of the prettiest crystals (in my opinion), is the mineral calcium fluoride, CaF2. It's forms in cubic or octahedrons such as a 6 or 8 sided dice. The form is dependent upon where it was originally formed. For example, the octahedral tends to form under high temps, and the cubic at... Continue Reading →

Why not start this shindig off with the most abundant crystal in the universe, quartz! Quartz is a silicate mineral with a composition of silicon and oxygen (SiO2). At the time of the creation of the earth, the most common minerals making up our beautiful molten planet were oxygen, silicon, aluminum, hydrogen, sodium, calcium, iron,... Continue Reading →