I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, man is a product of nature. Everything artificial, manmade, synthetic, etc is still ultimately of natural origin. This includes dyes and plastics. If I remember correctly, amber and pine resin are considered natural plastic, as is the keratin in our hair. Petroleum products are simply the remains of long-dead lifeforms.

On the other hand, I still prefer to use relatively unprocessed products. Willow over aspirin, paraffin over nylon, wood stove over electric stove, etc. These are just my own personal choices. While both humans and crystals may enjoy being dyed outrageous colors, I don't know how I feel about forcing such changes against the will of normal geologic process. The issue could be compared to circumcising infants or neutering dogs without their consent. I won't turn down a dyed or heat-treated crystal that appeals to me, and I don't believe their energy is destroyed by these treatments, only changed. But these practices may indeed be worth questioning.

My collection consists mostly of quartz and lava rock. There are also a few dyed marbles, painted pebbles, and other assorted oddities mixed in with the smoky scoria and fiery feldspar. Good bit of metal too.

Interesting thought process, I get where you are coming from, but just because the components are of natural origin, does not make it natural. With this line of reasoning, everything on earth is natural. Pesticides, mustard gas, and nuclear weapons.

Also, since human acts require no outside influence other than what is on earth, does that mean all acts humans preform are also natural ? Hurting myself or others is natural ?

Yes indeed.

I have had similar thoughts before to what you say, I just like playing devil's advocate. It's good exercise for the mind.

I like quartz too. It was my first love. Quartz is way cool because it's not extremely expensive like some stones ( tourmaline, opal etc... ) but it's very pretty and comes in many types and colors. Clear, white, red, pink ( rose quartz and pink quartz are actually different ), yellow, purple ( amethyst ), phantom green, black, and smokey. Oh and citrine is a type of quartz too. I have large specimens of them all except for white. To me white quartz is sort of like low quality clear quartz, never really was interested in that one, but of course everyone has a different opinion and different interests.

If you like quartz you might also like fluorite. Fluorite was one I got into right after my fascination with quartz. Fluorite can also be reasonably priced, and is extremely colorful. One of my favorite stones.

Lava rock ? Interesting. Is it formed like a crystal ? Would love to see a picture of it sometime. :smile:

Feldspar can be quite amazing. I have a labradorite which I love. Is the fiery feldspar have a play of color ? I would love to see this sometime as well.

Fluorite - Also one of my favorites. Especially the ones that glow in the blacklight, since that's the primary light source here in my husband's bedroom. I'd like to find a pair of fluorite, approximately the same size, to use for eyes in the skull atop my castor staff. The "Master Castor Blaster" as I like to call it.

Lava rock - Eh, I wouldn't call it a "crystal" in the usual sense of the world. But I'm pretty sure it has a crystalline structure, like on a molecular level. I'll post pictures when I can.

Feldspar - Haha no, no play of color. Not THAT kind of fiery. Just a nice matte swirl of white, pink, red, and orange. Kinda like the lava from which it came, but more girly and pastel. This type of rock is quite common around where I live.

Fluorite eyes would be awesome. I think green fluorite would look really cool, and it's relatively inexpensive. Blue fluorite as well but it's slightly more rare and expensive, but still not bad price in the grand scheme of things.:smile:

Hrm, I haven't really thought of the color....Mainly just the glow. I want the eyes to look "radioactive" in the blacklight, which would go perfectly with the potentially deadly castor wood. I think I actually got mild ricin poisoning from inhaling the sawdust while I was sanding the staff....But I won't know how big of crystals I'll need until I get the skull, and I won't know what kind of skull until I find it.

This must be why I chose a couple of raw citrine pieces at a Crystal shop recently. They looked "baked" but I was drawn to them.

I was given a lot of hydrothermal gems as a gift recently. Basically they are gems but they are labgrown. They are made of the same material though as in nature and the growth methods are replicated. Instead of growing over millions of years they grow in months under immense heat and pressure in tubes.

Personally I would never have bought them but as a present I welcomed them in my collection. They are so shiny and sparkly!
I can see why a lot of people will be put off by them and I doubt they'll have any metaphysical value although some books mention Syberian Blue Quartz which is also labgrown. Another thing is that by growing gems this way nature doesn't get disrupted as no mining is needed. That is a good thing.

I think I'll need some more time with them to think about thow I feel about hydrothermals. They sure are pretty, photos don't do them justice at all.

Most Citrine is really heat treated Amethyst. Most people can not afford real Citrine. Remember Citrine and Amethyst are both Quartzs.

Some of the bright purple Amethyst comes from Paraguay.

Amethyst Towers are purchased wholesale by weight. If you look at the geode, normally you will find the bulk of the weight is the black cement that stabilizes the geode and also provides balance.