Exploring crystals and gems

I've been quiet for a while, mostly because I use this blog to chart new things I'm doing or learning and I haven't been doing anything new. Instead there has been a lot of knitting, crochet, spinning, book making, underwear sewing, etc going on, but nothing new.

A cardigan knitted and embroidered for a niece (home spun alpaca yarn)

Some little cloth covered journals for my Etsy shop

A little memory book for a gift

Some envelope note books made from recycled materials

Inside the note books. I'm selling these too.

An itty bitty cardigan for a new baby in the family.

Except for my new interest in crystals and gems...

My optical calcite necklace

The quartz piece in a pouch for one of the dogs, who tends to get into trouble (protection)

A beautiful turquoise necklace for a daughter

A Herkimer diamond for my Kabbalah collection

It all began with my Kabbalah learning; I have been exploring the correspondences of each Sephiroth (points on the Tree of Life), each Sephiroth has one or two crystals associated with it, so I have been slowly collecting examples (mostly from this shop) of each one and meditating with them to 'get to know' them.

In the process I learned to make pendants for my daughters (and one for the dog) as little presents.

One daughter wanted help with study (I can so relate to that) and she noticed that I had an optical calcite necklace which I wear when I study, so I went and found one for her. Then I had to figure out how to make it into a wearable item. Good old You Tube came to the rescue again with this clip...

Making these little pendants proved to be so easy that I now have a little pile of crochet covered stones in bowls around the house, oh and I made one for my daughter too.

The necklace I made for my daughter

A little lump of orange calcite

My interest in crystals is still new and I don't know very much about them. Do you have anything to share about crystals? What has been your experience with them?