Can You Give a Crystal as a Gift?
Yes. Settle two things about the object: how it looks from every side, and what was done to it before it reached the shop. The first you settle before you buy. The second has to travel with the gift, or…
Daniel Ashford
A hobbyist mineral and crystal collector since 2008, he covers the geological side of the site: composition, formation, identification, and what a stone in your hand physically is.
Why Lepidolite Is Expensive
Lepidolite is one of the pegmatite minerals mined for lithium, and its shelf price has not followed lithium back down. That last part is my reading of the market rather than a published figure. Five numbers, from the lithium chapter…
Moonstone vs Labradorite: Are They the Same?
No, they are not the same stone, though they are close relatives. Moonstone and labradorite are both feldspars, and both owe their shimmer to the same underlying trick of light. The difference is in what kind of feldspar each one…
Is It Safe to Buy Crystals Online?
Yes, with one question asked first and in writing. Is the photograph the piece I will receive? A listing can show one piece from a batch and ship another without anything in the description being wrong, and that sentence is…
Is It Better to Buy Crystals Online or in Person?
The channel follows the stone. Some properties survive a photograph and some are destroyed by one, and which kind you are buying is a fact about the mineral, so the answer changes stone by stone. GIA’s guidance on judging amethyst…
Is Blue Tiger’s Eye Natural?
Yes. Hawk’s eye, the blue variety, is natural, and it is the less altered of the two. The golden colour is what weathering does to it later. Dyed blue material exists, but its share of the market is not a…
How to Buy Real Crystals
Buy from sellers whose business is specimens, not decor, and put your checking into the name on the label. Manufactured stone is concentrated at the expensive end of the trade. The piece in my collection that looks least real is…
Best Crystal Books for Beginners
Buy two books: one crystal book from the ten below, which will teach you the tradition and how people work with stones, and one mineral field guide, which will teach you the material. The first book I would put on…
