Newest addition to my collection.

Today my newest addition to my collection arrived which is this beautiful clear Quartz egg. Quartz is the second most common mineral in the world with the first being Feldspar. Quartz has several variants such as Rose Quartz, Agate, and Onyx but there are a lot more. It fascinates me how Quartz can turn into so many things  that look totally different to it. This egg will be a great addition to my collection.

Tigers eye

Tigers eye is one of my favorite gemstones, it's also one of the cheaper ones so that's a bonus. It has a silky luster and is typically golden and brown in color however you can get red Tigers eye which is a nice mixture of dark and light red. The reason it is named Tigers eye is because it is a Chatoyancy gemstone which is a French inspired word meaning Cats Eye. Another gemstone with this affect is MoonStone. I myself have 7 pieces of Tigers Eye, two of which are Red Tigers eye and another two which are Tigers Eye sticks which you can see in the picture below.

Where I purchase my Minerals and Gemstones.

So, one of the biggest problems I had  when starting my collection was where to find the minerals. For a while my collecting was at a stand still as I couldn't find any shops that weren't  either in another state or extremely over priced. I did find that Etsy has a few good shops that you can get a wide assortment of minerals and gemstones. All of the shops are under the jewelry section, you'll have to do a lot of searching around if you are looking for specific minerals. My favorite shops are Rockparadise and Earthlightgems. Ebay also has a bunch of people selling minerals. Gemstones however a bit trickier, I myself only have 5-8 gems and most of the low key ones like Tigers eye and amethyst. If you want proper gemstones like sapphire, garnet or emerald you'll have to find jewelers websites really all you have to do is type in "where to buy emeralds" and a few will pop up, The best one in my opinion is GemSelect. Be warned though, they are a pretty pricey almost over 150-200$ unless you get a tiny one that you need a microscope to properly see. If you search hard enough you can find online shops to get almost any mineral or gemstone you want, you just have to put a little work into it.

My Collection.

My Collection consists of 88 minerals all categorized into their own sections. I also have 13 fossils and arrowheads, it's not a grand collection but I love each and every one of them. My Uncle was also a collector and his collection had hundreds of minerals and gemstone alike. Each time we visited him I went crazy looking at them all but he never let me touch them. The only mineral he ever gave me was a Desert Rose, a crystal formed from Baryte precipitation from water that crystallized around Quartz sand. This process left behind large deposits of reddish sandstone that had Rose crystals in it. This ball of crystals fascinated me so much and I learned all I could about it, this started my love of minerals. When I first began I only collected them for the way they looked but that quickly grew into a passion. I didn't just want to collect them anymore I wanted to know about them and what they are used for and how they are formed. I love talking about my collection but it bored everyone in my family and all my friends, that's why i'm creating this blog. I want to discuss my passion to other who share it and help those who are just starting it.