How old are your crystals or gemstones?

etheric-imprinted_72 · #1 26-02-2019, 08:50 PM

For me, I have a piece of rose quartz that I bought back in 1994/1995 from a town market. Out of all my collection I would have to say that this is my oldest crystal. Any on here have any personal favorites?

TheGlow · #2 26-02-2019, 09:50 PM

Blue kyanite was formed 300 million years ago when Pangea was formed. :)
Moldavite was formed 14.7 million years ago when a meteorite hit earth. :)

I know you mean age in years since purchase but I just find those ages amazing to try to wrap my head around.

I have no idea how old the rest are, it might be harder to figure out for some stones as their are multiple mine sites.

The first one I personally bought was a piece of blue Kyanite, 2009.
I like them all but the ones I spend most time with are the kyanite, Labradorite, Charoite, and Selenite.

FairyCrystal · #3 26-02-2019, 11:14 PM

Semi-precious stones... I bought a number for the first time around 2004.

Although I bought a cardboard card with samples of some 30 semi-precious stones glued on it around 1981. I found that totally fascinating! I still got it, lost 1 or 2 of the stones unfortunately.

Stones from the garden etc. I started collecting in 1976 in an empty egg box. Only special ones that I fancied. I also had a few pebbles that had been halved one way or another. They looked like eyes, I loved those! You hardly ever found them.

Collecting semi-precious stones & crystals from intuition, aware of what I needed and so on kind of took off around 2010. Since then I've gather around 300 crystals.

Crystal canuck · #4 27-02-2019, 04:46 AM

I have acquired over 20 large specimens of crystals and unique rocks as display pieces, and have them all over the house, but it's really only in the last 5 years or so I have collected them.

It started when my wife bought a large amethyst specimen from an art shop. I always admired it, and thought it was beautiful, but that was about it. I bought my wife a celestine geode one day, for her 2nd piece. Since having them in the house and admiring them, my fascination grew to the point I think I am more crazy about them than my wife is. I bought myself a Tibetan smokey citrine just under 10 LBS, from a Chinese seller on ebay, and I was hooked.

I then started importing large specimens from all over the world, and now my house kinda looks like a museum. My fascination has if anything grown over the years to the point where it is my main hobby and interest. Even read books on geology and chemical makeup when I am on the bus or waiting at an office.

My wife started collecting smaller but high quality cuts of tourmaline, but my focus is on various large unique samples between 8-30 LBS. We both love and admire each others collections however.

As for which one is my personal favorite, that's a very tough one, as I have lots I love. I really love my striped rainbow fluorite ( approx. 11 LBS ) but lately the one I seem to admire a lot is a fairly recent purchase, a 14 lBS black andradite garnet from inner Mongolia. It's got an amazing reflection and a beautiful dark black. It's got a secondary mineral that's a delicate clear crystal, and the contrast is striking.

Here's a picture

Sapphirez · #5 28-02-2019, 06:31 AM

that's awesome Crystal Canuck. Thanks for showing so many pictures of your pieces! Any possibility of you making a thread with a virtual tour of your house fll of these amazing specimens??

hmm I'm not sure I can pinpoint what year I started really collecting crystals, but it was after 2011 that I got very passionate about it. lol actually I think I recently saw one of my old posts from when I just joined here and I was asking about crystals I acquired as such a novice. One crystal gift I got from a friend when I was new to crystals is a woven bracelet with three-five jade beads she picked out for me. I don't know where any of them are now though unfortunately, broke a long time ago but I was secretly glad cuz I wanted to do something else with the beads, and our friendship went on hiatus. She had also given me some strings of beads she got that I am still unsure what they are. One was a salmon type pinkish colored stone and the other was green, maybe it is a serpentine. I still have necklaces I made with those somewhere. anyway, enjoyed reading others' stories in here!

Crystal canuck · #6 01-03-2019, 08:42 AM

Hi Sapphirez ! Funny you should mention that about a virtual tour, I recently was wondering if anyone would like to see my collection in such a fashion. I am flattered that you are interested.

I would like to think I have a nice collection with some museum grade specimens. It's something I take some pride in, as it's the only real hobby I have. Some of them I have posted in the latest crystal thread, but there are many that I have not shared yet. At last count I have 23 specimens smallest being 8 lbs and largest being over 30 LBS.

As my wife recently pointed out to me, it's going to be impossible to get a specimen of all major types and classes, considering the size I collect, I guess that is why many people collect smaller specimens. The main types I have acquired are quartz, fluorite, labradorite, kyanite, tourmaline, calcite, garnet, jasper, hematite, chrysocolla, Celestine, and a couple others I can't think of at the moment. Pretty soon I will really have to stop collecting as my house is getting full, but everytime I think I have everything I want, I find more on my list ( tiger eye, jadeite, grape agate ) I think I might have a problem. Oh well, a smartly placed shelf or two will fix that.

If it's of interest, I will start formulating a good virtual tour for you, complete with a small writeup of each stone and it's history and any applicable interesting story behind them. To be honest I don't have a lot of friends that drop by so it would be a nice way to share my collection. I have already started taking pictures with my new cellphone ( don't laugh it's a Hauwai Pro and it's got a better camera than most actual cameras, 30 mexapixel

) but the fourm here isn't very smartphone friendly and I will have to transfer the photos to my computer first.

FairyCrystal · #7 01-03-2019, 10:02 AM

I also have the problem of running out of space, but I don't have huge pieces. I don't buy them as they'd be unaffordable. These days my crystal shop does have larger pieces of certain stones, and by large I do mean large, but somehow they don't appeal to me.
I think maybe it's to do with what you want with your crystals? I want to be able to hold them and feel them. Just seeing them and looking at them is not what I want with them.

A tour is always nice. I've done a tour of one little fairy room upstairs with mostly feminine energy crystals in it. The more masculine and fiery crystals are in another room. I did a video, not photos.
But have not posted it on my channel yet. I'm always reluctant to share my crystals.
Why not video it? Quality of Huawei is good, sound is absolutely great, and I don't even have Pro. I use it for my readings. Excellent quality and the sound is seriously astounding, hihi.
You could upload to YouTube as well, post a link here. If it's unlisted no one else can find it unless they have a link. And you can take it down whenever you want.
Bear in mind you can only record 4 gb in one go, which is about 40 mins.

Crystal canuck · #8 02-03-2019, 04:29 AM

Hi Fairycrystal ! Thanks for the advice, a youtube video is a great idea, although I have never posted anything to youtube, I'm sure it's fairly easy. I would have responded to you earlier but this fourm seems to not like smartphones. I can log in and view the forum on my smartphone, but can't post anything, for that I need my work or home computer.

Yeah I know about what you mean about usage of stones. It makes sense to have smaller stones if you are working with them, or want to hold/carry them, or even if you want a large collection with variety, than getting smaller ones allows for that, because of space and also economics. For me, it's not about that, it's about having display pieces as works of art, home decor sort of thing. For me it's all about it's beauty. So it makes sense to get sizable pieces.

Haven't actually tried video on the phone yet, but I'm sure it's more than satisfactory. I don't mind sharing my crystals, in fact, I think it's a shame not to show them off. If I have ever felt anything from them, it's a slight feeling inside that they want to be admired and adored. One of the saddest things I have ever heard is of this rare crystal that loses it's color when exposed to light, it's in a museum that you have to press a button to turn on a light for a few seconds to view the specimen. Such beauty and we can barely view it

I know you have your own reasons for not sharing crystals, and I can respect and understand that, especially the way you use them, however I have no such fears, in fact feel free to leech any energy you see fit.

SapphireBlue · #9 02-03-2019, 11:33 PM

It started in the early 90s for me, my Grandpa gave me a Jasper and quartz cluster which someone gave him at work then I started collecting Treasures of the Earth (remember them?). Also got a lot as gifts and bought a few from some crystal shops on holidays. I stopped collecting them in the early 2000s.
Most of them are displayed in a little glass cabinet bought especially for them.
Crystal canuck, I'd love to see a tour of your collection!

FairyCrystal · #10 03-03-2019, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crystal canuck

Hi Fairycrystal ! Thanks for the advice, a youtube video is a great idea, although I have never posted anything to youtube, I'm sure it's fairly easy. I would have responded to you earlier but this fourm seems to not like smartphones. I can log in and view the forum on my smartphone, but can't post anything, for that I need my work or home computer.

Yeah I know about what you mean about usage of stones. It makes sense to have smaller stones if you are working with them, or want to hold/carry them, or even if you want a large collection with variety, than getting smaller ones allows for that, because of space and also economics. For me, it's not about that, it's about having display pieces as works of art, home decor sort of thing. For me it's all about it's beauty. So it makes sense to get sizable pieces.

Haven't actually tried video on the phone yet, but I'm sure it's more than satisfactory. I don't mind sharing my crystals, in fact, I think it's a shame not to show them off. If I have ever felt anything from them, it's a slight feeling inside that they want to be admired and adored. One of the saddest things I have ever heard is of this rare crystal that loses it's color when exposed to light, it's in a museum that you have to press a button to turn on a light for a few seconds to view the specimen. Such beauty and we can barely view it

I know you have your own reasons for not sharing crystals, and I can respect and understand that, especially the way you use them, however I have no such fears, in fact feel free to leech any energy you see fit.

Well, in that case I'd say do vid for sure! You can then easily tell something about crystals too. You could do a few vids. Make it a series.
Uploading to YT is ridiculously easy. I'm not all that tech savvy, but I do it too.
And the Huawei is really good! You mentioned you had a Pro? I don't, so you have a much better camera even than me, and even I make great quality vids.
Bear in mind that if you shoot Full HD (I believe the default setting) you reach the max of 1 vid at about 30 mins. Max is 4GB.
My previous phone automatically started a new vid, my Huawei doesn't. The 4GB max is normal, you can't get around it unless you root your phone, whatever the heck that means, hihi. I make do with the max of 4GB. Seems easier, lol. Like I said, I'm not that tech savvy.
Of course do what speaks to you, maybe you prefer photos, fair enough of course. Just pointing something out you may not have thought of.