#jasper feldspar quartzite

[snipehuntpotatosack]

The litany I began late last night

This is a mental exercise I began late last night to name physical substances, in an attempt to nail myself to the bed:

Opal, fire opal, chalcedony quartz, all the quartzes, rose quartz, quartzite silicon, porphyry, marble, alabaster, nacre black onyx, green onyx, sardonyx spinel, beryl, beryllium, manganese, diamond graphite, ruby, carborundum, emerald, sapphire topaz, bloodstone, green jasper, red jasper aventurine, unikite, amethyst, garnet, feldspar mica, mica schist, granite, andesite, basalt cadmium, liquid nitrogen, frozen hydrogen slush (on Jupiter) magnesium metal, peridot, peridotite, olivine, cinnabar cinnamon, allspice, mace, peppercorn, arsenic flint, jet, jade, obsidian, chert, the death stones carnelian, lapis lazuli, potash, iron, sulfur copper, tin, agate, cats-eyes, coal anthracite, bitumen, peat, loess, loam, humus frass, blue ice, green ice, white ice, powdered ice chitin, lime in megamicro-portions (pounded remains of radiolarian and foraminiferan skeletons and shells of all description) limestone, sandstone, shale, oilstone, emery slate, gneiss, nickel, uranium, polonium lithium, gadolinium, silica sand, alluvial silt, mud brick, adobe, cement, concrete, cast iron, wrought iron, steel aluminium, platinum, gold, silver, cobalt titanium, molybdenum, vanadium, yttrium, erbium hail, snowflakes, frankincense, sandalwood, jute hemp, hashish, kif, lead, butane spiderweb, tornado wreckage. teeth, bone, amber ash, oil, wax, syrup, dust, gels, grit, crumbs, flakes, splinters nails, screws, bolts, rivets, wire frangipani, spikenard, myrrh, ambergris, sea wrack salt, beach glass, oceanic plastic pellets, pollen, zooplankton water vapor, various stenches, sun stroke, blisters, paper wasp hives lint, airborne motes, specks, prions, viruses, cell walls PVC, MSG, LSD, CFC, NSAIDs tar, asphalt, macadam, astroturf gunpowder, nitrogen fertilizer, primacord, shuriken, garrote dirt, detritus, dung, clay, ocher, methylene blue mercury, tantalum, niobium, bezoars bromine, permanganate, dead leaves, dead grass hay, straw, osier, duck tape, scotch tape bullwhip, horsehide, dog fur, cat dander, roach eggs patina, rain, smog, near-vacuum, thermal inversion sound ticks, sound blasts, sonic booms, thunder, throbs

breath breath breath breath breath breath

[luthienne]

Jane Hirshfield, from After; “Jasper, feldspar, quartzite”

#jane hirshfield #after #jasper feldspar quartzite #words #poetry #typography #the great wound #the dark's his bone #a dream ago perhaps

[iolitewitchcraft]

Hello, I would appreciate your help identifiying these crystals!

Photo one: this gem is lighter than other of its size, some of the white is chalky textured.

Photo two: this crystal has some sparkles in it, a lot of green/blue color mixing, none of the white is translucent.

Photo three: this one has a really nice dark green color, some of the white parts look underneath the top layer. Like they are little clouds contained in a green atsmophere.

Photo four: this crystal is glittert, but not goldstone glittery, ans has some crackly-ness to the coloring. Possible dyed crackle quartz?

One and three are both forms of chalcedony. One looks like jasper and agate together in one piece (the banded bit of the white area would be considered agate). Three is potentially moss agate - it depends how much white there is on the other side. If there’s less than on this side, you may consider the piece to be prase rather than moss agate - but it’s really all just based on appearance.

Two is amazonite, a green-blue variety of microcline feldspar.

Four is most likely a dyed quartzite. While I’m not 100% on the dye (there is natural blue “aventurine”), the color in this piece appears concentrated in cracks rather than platelets, and it’s also very vibrant. So I’d go with dyed quartzite for this one.

#thank you for the submission!! #submission

[loveissa122397universe-blog]

Classifying Stones

Rocks are classified to make it easier on people to identify them in the future. This can be done by a numerous amount of ways. Each rock type has their own specific ways, but there are two distinct characteristics that apply to all. These are texture and composition. These two, along with many others helps to classify igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. Igneous rocks are classified first by texture. This is broken down mainly into grain size. First there are intrusive, or plutonic igneous rocks. These types of rocks cool within the crust and forms large, visible crystals. The opposite would be extrusive, or volcanic rocks. These cool at the surface rapidly, forming small grains. A combination of the two would be porphyritic, large grains in an aphanitic, or extrusive matrix. Secondly, composition is used to classify igneous rocks. There are four types, ultramafic, mafic, intermediate, and felsic. Ultramafic rocks are very dark and contain and extreme amount of iron and magnesium. Mafic rocks are also dark in color; they too contain high iron and magnesium amounts. An example would be olivine, or pyroxene. Intermediate igneous rocks are made from silica and plagioclase. They tend to be grays and browns in color. Finally, felsic socks are light in color and contains high amounts of silica. Quartz and potassium feldspar are examples of felsic igneous rocks. Other types of rocks are classified similarlySedimentary rocks form from the weathering of pre-existing rocks. The broken down particles are then compacted and cemented together after the sorting process is complete. Depending on what the sedimentary rock is formed by, determines whether is known as clastic or chemical. Clastic rocks are composed of particles from weathering. They are then sorted by grain size, gravel being the largest and clay being the smallest. A few examples would be sandstones and shales. Chemical sedimentary rocks are biochemical, and contain ions in the solution from weathering. These are also further classified. First you have limestone, which can be either organic or inorganic. An example would be fossiliferous or chalk. Next is dolostone, and it is formed from dolomite. Chert is next; and can be organic or inorganic also. Flint and jasper are some examples of chert. Rock salt and gypsum are what are known as evaporites. These form from the evaporation of saline waters in an arid environment. Finally there is coal, which is organic and forms from buried plant remains and carbon. There is one more type of rock that is classified the same way as the previous two. Metamorphic rocks are pre-existing rocks that are changed by heat and pressure. The pre-existing rock is called the parent rock, or protolith. Metamorphism occurs in these rocks when the minerals become instable. There are two types of metamorphism, contact and regional. Contact is high temperature, low pressure. It is basically a massive rock that is baked. Regional is high pressure and low temperature. Strong fabric, or layering, develops from this kind of metamorphism. Along with metamorphism, you get texture changes. The first is recrystallization, which is where you get new minerals from old. Some of the new minerals that form are micas, feldspars, and garnet. You can also get foliation, which is a planar fabric in a metamorphic rock. Simply, this is the alignment of minerals within the rock that are platy. Types of foliation are slaty cleavage, schistosity, and gneissic layering. Non-foliated rocks can also form. These are massive in size, uniform, and have no planar fabric. Marble and quartzite are the two best examples of a non-foliated metamorphic rock. To conclude the study of rocks has come an extremely long way.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sandatlas.org/wp-content/uploads/Igneous-rocks-gabbro-andesite-pegmatite-basalt-pumice-porphyry-obsidian-granite-tuff.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sandatlas.org/rock-types/&h=570&w=720&tbnid=udOkPGFUURMsqM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=201&usg=__ns8ihxtP8tD0W9uCe1L0lw8DuTM%3D&vet=10ahUKEwiE3dW90PDXAhWq54MKHamnCfcQ9QEILTAA..i&docid=tySGNFB_RzcnWM&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE3dW90PDXAhWq54MKHamnCfcQ9QEILTAA

[iolitewitchcraft]

Storing your tumbled crystals 🔮

In an ideal world, every single one of your tumbled crystals would be neatly, individually wrapped in a little soft cloth and only brought out for use. If any of you have the time and patience (and fabric) for that, I will legitimately mail you a crystal out of sheer amazement. (I’m serious. PM me.)

It’s not an ideal world. Most of us toss all our crystals together in a box, or a drawer, or maybe a bag.

I have two suggestions for us common folk who I did not just mail a crystal. 

One: Keep your rough/faceted/otherwise polished crystals SEPARATE. I’m going to focus on tumbled stones here, so step one is to open up that crystal box or dig through your crystal bowl and take out anything that isn’t tumbled or otherwise smoothed/rounded (spheres, for example, can stay with your tumbled crystals). You don’t want any sharp edges in there.

Two: Split your tumbled crystals into at least two groups, and store them that way. Maybe it means you need another box or another bag. Maybe you fold up a piece of paper towel and use it as a divider in your box or drawer. Whatever you do is fine - but these groups shouldn’t touch each other in storage.

How should I divide my crystals?

To maintain that gorgeous glossy shine that most of your tumbled crystals have, they should be divided into groups based on hardness. That way, they won’t abrade each other as quickly as they would if they were all mixed together. I recommend keeping the first two categories separated from the last two, but if possible, separating all four categories is best!

Hard Crystals Crystals I’m considering “hard” are anything harder than quartz (7). These are the ones we don’t need to worry about. Hard crystals will, however, easily damage your softer crystals. 

Hard crystals you might have in your tumbled collection include:

Corundum (ruby and sapphire)

Beryl (emerald, aquamarine, morganite, heliodor, goshenite, etc)

Chrysoberyl (including alexandrite)

Garnet (any type)

Phenakite

Spinel

Topaz

Quartz-ish Crystals These guys probably make up the bulk of your collection. They’re crystals that fall around the range of quartz on the Mohs scale (6.5-7.5). These can pretty safely be grouped with your hard crystals - keep in mind, though, anything softer than a 7 can be scratched by dust particles in the air, so gemologically they’re considered “soft”.

The quartz family makes up the bulk of this category, and includes:

Rock crystal/clear quartz/herkimer diamond

Amethyst

Citrine

Praseolite

Ametrine

Anything with “quartz” in the name

Chalcedony

Onyx (not onyx marble!), sardonyx

Agate

Jasper

Quartzite (occasionally called azeztulite)

Chrysoprase

Carnelian, sard

Aventurine

Bloodstone

Tiger’s eye, hawk’s eye, etc.

Pietersite

But that’s not all! Other stones that fall in this hardness range are:

Iolite

Tourmaline

Andalusite (including chiastolite)

Cinnabar (because it’s usually included in quartz)

Danburite

Idocrase/vesuvianite

Jadeite

Spodumene (kunzite, hiddenite, also sometimes called triphane)

Kyanite (directional hardness)

Lapis lazuli (actually much softer, but may have hard areas)

Peridot/olivine

Epidote (unakite)

Feldspar-ish Crystals These fall into the range of the feldspar family - Mohs 5.5-6.5. They’re definitely soft, but will be the “hard” crystals in your soft crystal box, so be careful!

In the feldspar family, we have:

Amazonite

Labradorite (including spectrolite, yellow labradorite, etc)

Moonstone (orthoclase and labradorite)

Sunstone (any type)

Bytownite, andesine, albite, and other feldspars

In addition to the feldspars, there are lots of stones that fall into this hardness range:

Zoisite (ruby-in-zoisite, tanzanite, thulite, anyolite, etc)

Charoite

Hematite

Nephrite (most jade)

Serpentine (including atlantasite, healerite, new jade, etc)

Obsidian and natural glass (tektite, desert glass, etc)

Manmade glass (electric blue obsidian, opalite, etc)

Opal

Petalite

Prehnite

Rhodonite

Sodalite (including hackmanite)

Sugilite

Turquoise

Soft Crystals Soft crystals are delicate. They’re rarely set in jewelry, and you have to be super careful handling them. They can easily be damaged by harder crystals and each other.

Soft tumbled crystals you might have in your collection are:

Amber

Angelite, anhydrite

Apatite

Apophyllite

Aragonite (including mother-of-pearl, shell, pearls)

Azurite, malachite, or a combination

Calcite

Celestine

Chlorite (when not included in quartz), seraphinite

Chrysocolla

Dioptase

Fluorite

Mica (fuchsite, muscovite, lepidolite)

Howlite and magnesite

Jet

Pectolite (larimar)

Rhodochrosite

Selenite (or any kind of gypsum)

Shattuckite

Ulexite

Variscite

I like to sort my crystals into two bowls with “hard” and “quartz-ish” crystals in one, and “soft” and “feldspar-ish” crystals in the other. Rocks and unknown crystals go in the “hard” bowl, but if they appear heavily abraded (dull, pitted surface), they might get transferred to the “soft” bowl. 

Also, this is by no means an exhaustive list - if you have a crystal that isn’t here, Google its hardness and put it into the most fitting category!

If you use this method to separate and store your tumbled crystals, I promise you they’ll keep their shine much longer! Happy crystal collecting :)

#crystals #witch #witchcraft #witchy #tumbled stones