Quartz
Quartz is the common name for a family of hard crystalline minerals which occur in a wide variety of shapes, colours and properties. The name Quartz is descended from the German word ‘Quarz’, reflecting a Polish word ‘kwardy’ which is correspondent with the Czech word ‘tvrdy’ meaning ‘hard’.
Some well known varieties of Quartz beyond the ubiquitous Clear Quartz include:
Rose Quartz: widely known and popular stone due to its hazy, rosy pink colour, it should not be confused with Pink Quartz which forms in a crystalline structure and has different chemical properties.
Amethyst: named for the belief held amongst the ancient Greeks that the stone could protect from drunkenness; Amethyst is today primarily mined from both Uruguay and Brazil with smaller sources all around the world. Amethyst owes its deep colour to a very high level of energy radiation.
Citrine: A rare mineral in nature, the majority of Citirne available for lapidary purposes is heat treated Amethyst in order to induce chemical change and imbue it with its characteristic orange hue. The naturally occurring variety of Citrine being a much rarer and highly prized mineral.
Smoky Quartz: the deep hazy colour is caused by a combination of irradiation in addition to trace amounts of aluminum within the crystal structure.
Agate: potentially referred to as ‘banded chalcedony’, agate could potentially be considered an agate if it possesses the following qualities:
Adventurine: featuring a metallic sheen due to the presence of additional materials to what would otherwise be Quartzite. Irregular in shape when rough due to its grainy structure. Many are sourced from India, Brazil and Norway.
Arcane Artifacts is home in store to a wide variety of Quartz crystals from large Citrine and Amethyst caves to small specimens of high quality crystals, raw specimens and more!
Some well known varieties of Quartz beyond the ubiquitous Clear Quartz include:
Rose Quartz: widely known and popular stone due to its hazy, rosy pink colour, it should not be confused with Pink Quartz which forms in a crystalline structure and has different chemical properties.
Amethyst: named for the belief held amongst the ancient Greeks that the stone could protect from drunkenness; Amethyst is today primarily mined from both Uruguay and Brazil with smaller sources all around the world. Amethyst owes its deep colour to a very high level of energy radiation.
Citrine: A rare mineral in nature, the majority of Citirne available for lapidary purposes is heat treated Amethyst in order to induce chemical change and imbue it with its characteristic orange hue. The naturally occurring variety of Citrine being a much rarer and highly prized mineral.
Smoky Quartz: the deep hazy colour is caused by a combination of irradiation in addition to trace amounts of aluminum within the crystal structure.
Agate: potentially referred to as ‘banded chalcedony’, agate could potentially be considered an agate if it possesses the following qualities:
- Banding caused by either variations in colouration or crystal structure.
- A combination of translucency and multi-colouring.
- A nodular shape in addition to the properties of translucency.
Adventurine: featuring a metallic sheen due to the presence of additional materials to what would otherwise be Quartzite. Irregular in shape when rough due to its grainy structure. Many are sourced from India, Brazil and Norway.
Arcane Artifacts is home in store to a wide variety of Quartz crystals from large Citrine and Amethyst caves to small specimens of high quality crystals, raw specimens and more!