I love geology. I am a great big fan of rocks. I love fossils and geodes and crystals. My favorite rocks, though, by far, are ones I can wear.
Enter the gem show.
Most years, I don’t go to the gem show. I know me, I know the capacity of my house and the (much lesser) flexibility of my budget, and I stay away.
This year, though, I got my tax refund on the Wednesday right before the last weekend of the gem show–when the dealers are slashing prices because everything they sell they don’t have to pack.
Clearly, it was fate.
Maybe. On Thursday I went home from work sick. On Friday I got out of bed for maybe three hours total. On Saturday it was two hours. Sunday was the last day of the gem show…and I crawled out of bed, went to the gem show, spent my budget and a little more, and came home and crawled back into bed.
I have zero regrets–except that I don’t remember what all these pretties are.
The blue, I think, is kyanite. I love it because it looks like the lines of a gas giant. The one with purple swirls, and the one that looks like an abstract of a beach? No idea.
The one at the top with the brown is boulder opal, I’m pretty sure. This picture is not the greatest; you should see it flash. At the bottom is…probably some kind of jasper?
Here are my many necklaces. I don’t care for chains, so I buy leather cord a couple yards at a time, and string everything I can on to it. The blue wave (actually on a chain because it’s tiny) is larimar. The shiny with green right below it is ammonite. I love that it looks different every way you look at it. The green one with what looks like white feathers is seraphite, I remember that because the name made sense. (internet suggests seraphinite may be the more common name?)
The black stone with a white edge is much more stunning in person, but I don’t remember what it is. Obviously the black stone wrapped in copper is a fossil of…some sort. And I don’t know what the green stone with the blotch of red is either, so.
Better picture of the larimar wave, and another shot of the ammonite. So pretty!
This. Oh, this…research suggests this is Mariam jasper, also known as calligraphy stone. Apparently, it was made when the Himalayas smushed a swamp. Is that freaking cool or what? I’m not sure I could ever choose a favorite of all my new pretties, but I’m super SUPER fond of this one. It’s just so stunning!
Oh, and there’s also this fellow. That, friends, is a trilobite. They were wiped out in the Permian Extinction. Two hundred fifty million years ago.
Two hundred fifty million years.
I named him Link.
I had intended to write more about my stones and why I like necklaces and all, but I have taken too long to get this far, and now I need to go to bed.
G’night, friends. G’night, squid. G’night, Link.