What rocks/gems/minerals do you like?

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What gems/rocks/minerals do you like?

One of my favorites is howlite, which is white with dark streaks, and its discoverer had the last name How. It gets confused with white turquoise, but Wikipedia says that howlite actually has a higher hardness and is therefore better for use in jewelry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howlite


I also like fluorite, which I've always seen as greenish-purple, but the wiki says it's "the most colorful mineral in the world", coming in many different colors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorite

I like amethysts. But then again, it is my birthstone. It's also violet, which is one of my favorite colors.

People once believed it would protect them or cure them of intoxication. Some people today believe certain kinds of gemstones have healing powers and can cure anything, including autism. That is nonsense, they're all just a bunch of pretty rocks. Although they're not usually as pretty before they're smoothed and polished.

I had a big purple fluorite octagon when I was a kid. That's always been one of my favorites.

I like blue goldstone because it looks like a starry night sky.

As an ex-caver (spelunker), it has to be calcite for me. The variety of forms of flowstones, stalactites, stalagmites, gour pools and "moon milk" never ceased to amaze me - particularly the extremely long, thin, hollow straw stalactites that could cover a ceiling in their thousands. We used to go down old mines too, as there was a huge lead mining area in the nearest limestone karst, dating back at least to medieval times (Cistercian monks opened up many of the mines) - just rummaging through the spoil tips used to turn up some lovely specimens of all manner of minerals and crystals.

Lapis lazuli. My favorite shade of blue.

I like labradorite for it's electric blue veins of colour. Not sure where it is right now or if I've lost it.. but I have a piece that's cut and polished like this and sort of looks like a little Earth:



I have probably a few dozen different crystals/gemstones. Another that comes to mind is Ammolite, which is from fossilized shell linings & only from Canada. I bought a teardrop shaped piece that's capped with quartz for robustness from a gem show a couple years ago that looks like a rainbow Wreck Beach Sunset. (and also bought a small round Australian white opal that looks like a little moon - the idea being that I'm going to commission my silversmith friend to turn them into a money clip for me someday.)



The piece I have looks kind of like these, but upside down, and the green is off to the side(s) representing islands off the coast & it truly does look like a Wreck Beach Sunset when the colours split and the full rainbow spectrum is visible.



This is far from the best Sunset pic I've snapped, and I've seen better rainbow skies here, but this is one I snapped on May 16th - Sliver Moon & Venus visible above against a rainbow sky.

I have a great collection of crystals and i have found even a better collection of stones

As a kid I was obsessed with almost everything science, but in addition gems and minerals caught my attention alot. I think I still have a box of amethysts, citrines, quartz, etc. from my childhood in a box somewhere.

More recently as an adult, about ten years ago, I decided to take a few weeks to go to Australia and New Zealand and I landed in Brisbane right as the flood was receding. That's where I started seeing the fliers for opals. Particularly boulder opals and ironstone compounds really caught my attention as cool stuff. To me they're nature's wild-style graffiti.

I noticed on Facebook I'm seeing more advertisements for dice and runes carved in that. Bismuth's another one that's been getting a lot of attention on how decorative it's colors and crystal structure can be.

How do you make the picture move like that?

It's a GIF. A fracture of a video or a string of pictures.
https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-make-gif/

Last edited by Rexi on 13 Jan 2021, 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Quite like opal because of the vivid colours but also Geode, rock with crystal inside.

I very much love sapphires. They're just so blue...

I like fossils.

Opals, especially the blue ones. I’ve also lately been drawn to Boulder opals.

Amethyst, agates, turquoise, garnets

Geodes, fossils.