After digging through a box the other day, I decided I finally needed to organize my collection of rocks garnered from my many trips to the North Georgia Mountains. I was surprised and excited when I went through my plastic bags and grouped the stones together. I didn’t realize all the cool stones I had!
Hematite:
Let’s start with hematite. If you recall a previous post on hematite, this stone looks like a dark gray lump, but, once tumbled, turns into a beautiful silver color. The cool thing about hematite is that when rubbed against sandpaper, it leaves a red streak (hence the name hematite, which comes from the Greek root word for blood). Hematite is one of my favorite stones!
Quartz:
Quartz is a great stone, too! It comes in many colors and I haven’t found one I didn’t like. In my collection, I have clear, rose, lemon (yellow), smoky, and the cool pencil quartz. I had clear quartz cut into round brilliant cut stones and they are gorgeous!
The stones below are quartz as I found them. I will start with the pencil quartz. It is a misleading name, as some of the crystals are much larger than a pencil!
I think some of these would look great just hanging from a chain, but a couple of them are too big for anything except maybe a paperweight! Below is a picture of one of the large crystals.
Clear and lemon quartz are beautiful stones, too. I think I might send my gem cutter a couple of the lemon quartz to see what he can do with them. I expect they will be gorgeous! Here are some of each.
Aventurine:
Aventurine is another quartz stone and usually has bits of mica or other minerals that give it a shimmering appearance. Here is my collection of aventurine.
Amethysts and Citrines:
Amethysts and citrines are other forms of quartz. I have a nice collection of each and I have some large amethysts. Which are your favorites?
The two large amethysts are shown on the scale below. Using the conversion of 5 carats per gram, the first stone is 630 carats and the second is 575 carats!
Both of these stones are too fractured to cut into gemstones, but I love the deep purple color of them.
The citrines are a golden version of amethyst. I like the lighter color ones, but the darker ones (second picture) are the ones I might send to the gem cutter to see if he can get anything out of them.
Emerald Collection:
I have a large number of emeralds, too. One of my all-time favorite stones, these are rough and ready to tumble. I might have a few that are suitable for gem cutting.
Moonstone Collection:
If you recall from The Gemstone Chronicles Book Two: The Amethyst, Laura used a moonstone to turn her friends and family invisible during a battle. Now, I haven’t tried invisibility with these moonstones, but I like them!
Garnet Collection:
I find lots of garnets. The garnets are a deep red and its hard to show the color in a photo. I did manage to capture one, though. What do you think of them?
Rubies and Sapphires Collection:
Lastly, I wanted to share my collection of rubies and sapphires. Now, I don’t believe any of these are gem quality stones, but I like them anyway. I think when I start cabbing (making cabochons) in the near future, I will do a few of these just to see how they turn out. Stay tuned for them!
Connect with me:
I have more, but these are the favorites of my collection. What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment, subscribe to the blog, email me at bill@williamlstuart.com, or connect with me on social media. I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads!
Impressive collection, William! I collected a lot of gemstones when we were teaching on various native American Reservations out west. I don’t really know what I am going to do with them all now, but I guess I always thought “someday” I would figure it out, but even if I don’t I very much enjoyed collecting them and continue to enjoy them just as they are.
That is a great story, Carol! I take mine to book events and give them out to book buyers (or sometimes just because I can). But I have boxes and boxes of them and I don’t know what I will do with them either.
Bill, You have a great blog here. I’ve been scrolling through for awhile now. I found you while searching on what to do with the raw, or rough stones we found at Emerald Hollow mine today. We have some interesting things and I’m almost positive we have found our new hobby! The kids loved it as did my wife and I.
Thank you for the information you share as I continue to look through your blog for more information on this!
Hi Steve! Glad you found the blog. Rockhounding is addictive! If you live around Emerald Hollow, there are lots of great places to hunt. May I suggest (if you’re on Facebook) Minerals of the Southeastern United States group? Lot of good stuff there and good people from all around the southeast.