Discover the gemstones, minerals, and meteorites I work with in my sessions.
Every piece here is part of my personal collection, built over years and years of collecting. Some I found myself, fossicking in the Australian outback, mining tourmaline in Pala, California, and searching Arkansas's Crater of Diamonds. Many more I've sought out around the world, from New Zealand and Canada to the Tucson gem shows. In each session, I choose from this collection intuitively, based on what you're drawn to and what's ready to be explored.
A closer look at a few favorite pieces from my collection, and the stories behind them.
Native element
One of my all-time favorites. I found this brilliant yellow specimen at the Tucson gem show many years ago, and it inspired my sulfur crystal leggings. At Hell's Gate geothermal reserve in New Zealand, I got to see sulfur forming naturally around the steaming vents.
✦ Sulfur burns with a blue flame, which is how it earned its old name, brimstone, or "burning stone." (Please admire, don't ignite: the fumes are toxic.)
Native element
I'm obsessed with copper and I love its energy. Copper doesn't create energy, it moves it: it's one of the best conductors of electricity and heat on Earth. I've visited copper mines in British Columbia and Colorado, and my collection includes copper specimens from Arizona.
✦ Copper surfaces naturally kill many bacteria and viruses on contact, which is why some hospitals use copper door handles and rails. Its blue-green patina, verdigris, is also what turned the Statue of Liberty green.
Iridescent sea shell, lined with mother-of-pearl
Banded chalcedony (microcrystalline quartz)
Iron meteorite from Morocco
Blue-green feldspar mineral
Fossilized tree resin
Purple quartz
Quartz with zones of purple amethyst and golden citrine
Fossil shell of an extinct sea creature
Pale blue anhydrite mineral
Calcium phosphate mineral
Silicate mineral that forms glassy crystals
Blue beryl
Sodium-rich amphibole mineral
Feldspar with a glittering sheen, from Arizona
Orange-red chalcedony (microcrystalline quartz) from Arkansas
Quartz crystal from Arkansas
Trade name for serpentine with purple stichtite
Gold-bearing chalcopyrite from the Hidee Mine, Colorado
Orange-red chalcedony (microcrystalline quartz) from Australia
Iron oxide mineral from Australia
Sapphire (corundum) from Australia
Deep blue copper carbonate mineral
Volcanic rock
Metallic element, usually lab-grown into rainbow, stair-step crystals
Calcium carbonate mineral
Kyanite with dark inclusions, growing in fan-shaped blades
Dark feldspar with a soft, silvery sheen
Black variety of tourmaline, also called schorl; mined by Brit in Pala, California
Calcium carbonate mineral
Quartz with sparkling blue mineral inclusions
Pale blue variety of calcite
Bladed aluminum silicate mineral
Quartz from Nelson County, Virginia, tinted blue by tiny mineral inclusions
Blue topaz, usually treated to deepen the color
Trade name for green verdite, a mica-rich rock from South Africa
Calcium carbonate mineral
Iron meteorite from Argentina
Orange-red chalcedony (microcrystalline quartz)
Vivid blue mineral, often in small rosettes
Pale blue strontium sulfate mineral
Microcrystalline quartz with a soft, waxy glow
Copper iron sulfide mineral from Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
Purple, swirling silicate mineral from Siberia
Amethyst banded with white quartz in V-shaped layers
Blue-green copper mineral
Yellow to orange quartz
Colorless quartz
Native element
Deep red copper oxide mineral
Rose-shaped gypsum crystals formed with desert sand
A sparkling coat of tiny quartz crystals
Blue aluminum borosilicate mineral
Green beryl
Green silicate mineral
Calcium fluoride mineral
Green, chromium-rich variety of muscovite mica
Dark, coarse-grained igneous rock that cooled slowly deep underground
Lead sulfide mineral
Lead sulfide alongside pyrite and quartz crystals
Quartz with mineral inclusions that look like tiny landscapes; also called lodolite
Mineral group, often deep red
Iron meteorite from Namibia
Stony meteorite from Arizona, USA
Volcanic glass with a golden sheen
Trade name for a golden quartz
Trade name for quartz with a natural golden iron coating
Quartz with golden needles of rutile
Quartz with sparkling green mica inclusions
Green variety of calcite
Green variety of tourmaline; mined by Brit in Pala, California
Quartz with silky blue-gray bands; tiger's eye's blue cousin
Trade name for light-green serpentine
Iron oxide mineral
Double-terminated quartz from Herkimer County, New York
Patterned, banded volcanic rock (rhyolite)
White borate mineral with gray veins
Green nephrite jade from British Columbia, Canada
Rock with blue azurite spots, from the K2 region of Pakistan
Rhyolitic volcanic rock of quartz, feldspar, aegirine and amphibole needles; sold as jasper
Purple-red, chromium-rich variety of clinochlore
Calcium carbonate mineral from Kauaʻi
Pink to lilac spodumene
Feldspar mineral with a play of color
Deep blue rock made mostly of lazurite
Blue pectolite from the Dominican Republic
Porous volcanic rock
Spotted, orbicular rhyolite; sold as jasper
Lithium-rich mica; mined by Brit in Pala, California
Pink calcite, colored by manganese
Trade name for chalcedony with dark, fern-like mineral patterns
Fossil-rich sedimentary rock with natural, script-like patterns; also known as Calligraphy Stone
Natural green glass formed when a meteorite hit Earth, found in Central Europe
Banded chalcedony from Montana
Feldspar mineral with a soft, glowing sheen
Pink variety of the mineral beryl; mined by Brit in Pala, California
Chalcedony with green, moss-like mineral inclusions
Iridescent inner layer of a shell
Iron meteorite from northern Sweden
Silvery mica that splits into thin, shimmering sheets; mined by Brit in Pala, California
Ancient metamorphic rock from Greenland with iridescent flashes
Volcanic glass
Banded chalcedony (microcrystalline quartz)
Hydrated silica mineraloid
Orange variety of calcite
Feldspar with copper flecks, from Oregon
Peach-toned variety of gypsum
Kyanite blades in mixed shades of blue and green
Olive-green variety of the mineral olivine
Patterned stone with scenes that look like landscapes
Pale pink to lavender quartz
Natural rock salt (sodium chloride)
Pink variety of tourmaline; mined by Brit in Pala, California
New Zealand greenstone, treasured by Māori
Pale green silicate mineral
Spotted dolerite from the Preseli Hills of Wales, source of Stonehenge's bluestones
Iron sulfide mineral, known as fool's gold
The crystal family behind amethyst, citrine and more
Calcium carbonate mineral in bands of color
Fluorite banded in purple, green and blue
White labradorite with a blue, rainbow-like sheen; sold as moonstone
Volcanic glass with an iridescent sheen
Topaz with a metal coating (treated)
Calcium carbonate mineral
Opaque red microcrystalline quartz
Pink manganese carbonate mineral, often banded
Pink manganese mineral with black veins
Fine-grained volcanic rock
Pink quartz
Red ruby crystals set in blue kyanite
Quartz with needle-like rutile inclusions
Meteorite found in the Sahara, Morocco
Corundum
Meteorite found in the desert of Oman
Clear variety of gypsum
Concretion with calcite-filled cracks
Trade name for green clinochlore with feathery, silvery patterns
Green mineral group
Shell door of a sea snail
Carbon-rich rock from Karelia, Russia
Iron meteorite that fell in Russia in 1947
Metallic-looking element refined from quartz; lab-made
Brown to gray quartz
Volcanic glass with white, snowflake-like patches
Jasper with dark, web-like veins
Volcanic glass with web-like veining
Spiny oyster shell blended with turquoise, usually reconstituted
Quartz covered in tiny crystal points; also called cactus quartz
Quartz with red mineral inclusions
Rare purple manganese-bearing silicate mineral
Native element
Trade name for quartz holding several minerals
Natural glass formed when a meteorite hit Earth
Quartz with silky golden bands
Aluminum fluorosilicate mineral
Boron silicate mineral group
Pale yellow variety of spodumene, kunzite's mineral cousin; mined by Brit in Pala, California
Borate mineral, known as TV stone
Emerald-green chromium garnet
Stony-iron meteorite from Chile's Atacama Desert
Red-orange lead vanadate mineral
Tourmaline with a pink center and green rind
Orange lead molybdate mineral with thin, plate-like crystals
Calcium carbonate mineral
Trade name for a rock with sodalite that glows under UV light, from Michigan
Black-and-white patterned stone
Zirconium silicate mineral