Gemstones

So one thing about me is that i am a massive gemstone nerd. I started collecting when i was like... 8 or so? I went to this place after school that was supposed to help me with my dyslexia, not sure if it really did something, and at the end of the day i got a little present! At first this was a sticker, but then they started offering little tiny gemstones. I quickly became obsessed with these and started collecting them :D
When i was a little older i bought my first "propper" gemstone, a snowflake obsidian (with really good snow if i can brag) at a local museum, and even since then ive been wasting my money on rocks!

With all that history aside, this page is basically gonna be a collection of me ranting about gemstones that i love, ones that i hate and maybe ones that i have!

fake or synthesized gemstones

SO there is always a lot of discourse about gemstones that are synthesized or as some say, fake, in the general.. community? Is there a gemstone community? there probably is isnt there? anyways id like to give my opinion cuz i love talking about my opinion. In general i think synthesized gemstones are good! A lot of gemstones are won under pretty horrible conditions, especially ones from Africa, and i think any manner to help stop that is good. Well maybe not any i guess you could say just killing everyone would stop their suffering but thats only an argument used by stupid and annoying people.

BUT I DIGRESS! see i really like synthesized diamonds for example, especially since i hate hate hate that the price has been atificially inflated so far! But you also have gemstones where the synthesized versions are just.. far inferior. For example: malachite and opal. I don't think its bad for these to exist perse, but you will never catch me wearing or owning them. no sirree!

Another category is completly man-made "gemstones" such as opalite, goldstone/gold sandstone and its blue counterpart. I honestly like these "stones", but my problem lies in the fact that a lot of sites market these as "real", natural stones, and charge a lot more for them than theyre worth. This ripping off of people that know a bit less about gemstones (so 99,9999% of the people). But one thing about me is that they will never make me hate opalite. you beautiful piece of glass mwah mwah

Holism

Ok now we get to the REAL controversial stuff! time to complain about my nr 1 enemy (not really): the supposed "metaphysical properties of gemstones". Now LET ME BE CLEAR. i think people that belive in stuff like gemstones being magic should be respected as much as any other religion. the amount of respect i have for religion as a whole is maybe a bit low but hey i do my best. BUT i do think theres a lot issues with the stuff around gemstones being magical! Let's be real, a lot of it is a rip-off. I mean, i have a collection of gemstones that ive been growing since i was like 8, and look what good that has done me! It should also be glaringly obvious that gemstones will not help you beat cancer or any other disease, and telling people that it does to squeeze a couple of bucks outta them is frankly horrible.

And while we are on the subject of a few bucks, i see stores overcharging ALL THE TIME because their main customer base consists of people that when push comes to shove know barely anything about the gems theyre meditating with. I mean seriously, what is the last time you saw real citrine? or how about turqoise? and how about un-dyed agates? I mostly see the last one being done by tourist-y stores but holistic stores are NOT safe.

Theres also a larger issue with the absurd amount of cultural apropriation that these stores do, but im not really qualified to talk about that. Just felt it should be at least mentioned in a text complaining about the reasons these stores bother me haha

Opal

Let's start off with one of my favorite gemstones: opal! You can see an example on the background of this text (unless i change that, which, it is REALLY hard to read so i probably will lol). But as you can see its a very colorful and chaotic stone. So i feel a real kinship to it! lol :p

I woould love to own a full set of opal jewlery (so like earrings, a ring, a necklace and maybe even a bracelet? But unfortunatly for me opals are stupid expensive. With them being so pretty, theyre also very popular, so the demand is very high, and since theyre mostly won in Australia the cost of mining them is also high (to be clear i think this is good). Anyways, this high demand with low supply makes opals pretty expensive: they easily cost a couple hundred euros. and the stones that amount of money that'll get you are TINY!!

Another thing about opals is that, even tho they are synthesized, their man-made versions are.. really not as good as the real thing. Even when i theortically KNOW that theyre "real", they just look like glitter and resin to me xO or sometimes they look like all the colors.. lie next to each other. here we have a natural opal, and this is a synthetic one. You see the difference right?

Honestly, writing this little text has made me think that i should just go out and buy some opal jewelry. i mean, its not like im totally broke. but then again i should not be spening my money left right and center.. difficult choises.

Malachite

So malachite is a gemstone that was shot into the mainstream by Steven Universe (not hating). I think it was partly cuz of that that a lot of rumors around the supposed toxicity of the stone came to being? Ive been trying to do some reseach and ive found that malachite is not dangerous to wear or to get wet, but you shouldnt swallow it (please dont swallow any gemstone) or breathe it in (like the dust thats made by cutting it?). Malachite has a lot of copper (which is also what causes the beautiful color) so getting it in your system can cause copper poisoning (uh oh)

So, now that ive cleared up the rumors, it is time for me to fangirl about this GORGEOUS stone. My favorite stones are ones that are unique, that youd be able to put with 9 other stones of the same color and still be able to pick out, and malachite fits the bill perfectly. And i also have a real soft spot for opaque stones.. theyre a bit onpopular i think but i love them so much yayyy. Its also far less expensive so i should actually go GET some jewelery with malachite.. oh my beautiful baby i love you. ok thats enough of that i think