February 29, 2020  /  Uncategorized

Ethical Crystal Selling – Our Customer Commitment

There are several pitfalls for the unwary Crystal Buyer and there are also some philosophical differences between Crystal enthusiasts which are a question of personal preference and opinion.
In order to be open and transparent with our clients we wanted to make clear where we have decided to draw the line for the products that we have chosen to stock or leave out. However if you enjoy some of these lines and find you like working with them please understand that this is entirely a matter of personal choice and we are not expressing any kind of judgment about that at all.  What we are trying to do is lay down clear boundaries so that all our customers know exactly what they are getting when they make a buying choice at Crystal Cave.

1. Natural v Man-made Crystals
There are several products on sale which are not natural crystals and are in fact manufactured materials. Goldstone, Opalite and Blue Obsidian for example are entirely modern manufactured products. Composite materials (man-made) have a vibrational energy of their own depending on the component materials and it has to be a personal choice whether you are attracted to these materials and if you wish to work with them or not. Some crystal workers are adamantly opposed to man-made composite or manufactured materials and others equally convinced of their efficacy. It has to be a personal choice. However you should be aware when you purchase if a material is natural or manufactured.

Some crystals are laboratory grown and are arguably 100% natural in the sense that the crystal has developed in its true form. These laboratory environments can be managed to enhance crystal colour, size and other characteristics. Processes which in nature take millennia are accelerated and yet the crystals produced are chemically the same structure as natural crystals. From an energetic and vibrational point of view it could be argued these are fine to work with and no different than natural crystals.

We had chosen not to stock laboratory grown crystals however we also have to reflect the desires of our customers and as a result of requests from you we have decided to stock some of the laboratory grown and metal coated crystals. Opalite (man-made) we stock as a Worry Angel as we like its symbology when working with angel energies. However we will always state in the description details if a product is a man-made material or if it has been artificially modified by bonding with a metal finish for example.

2. ‘Reformed’ Crystal Material
Crystals’ that have been manufactured by using crystal material combined with resins or other additives to reform into crystal shapes.Turquoise is a good example of this. Approximately 90% of turquoise used in jewelry is made from powdered or fragmented material stabilized using additives to make it harder and easier to work with in jewelry. Sometimes this is done with an intention to deceive.  Additionally some popular products incorporate minerals within resins in various shapes or designs which are very transparently sold as such. This is done intentionally and marketed openly and honestly for the properties combined within the shapes created.

In both cases we have chosen not to stock these types of items and we ensure that crystals sold are sourced from suppliers who can guarantee no product modification has taken place.

3. Enhanced Crystal Products
Now it gets tricky!
a) Some crystals can be chemically altered using a variety of techniques which will change the physical properties of the crystal. For example, heat treatments are often used to enhance colouration or irradiation can be used to similar effect. In these cases human intervention is imitating natural geological processes to mimic those events and enhance or change crystal formations.

For example :-
i)  Citrine and Smokey Quartz in natural form are increasingly hard to find for the demand that exists and heat treating Amethyst or White Quartz will transform those two materials into Citrine or Smokey Quartz respectively. As these have the same chemical properties as the natural forms it is perfectly reasonable to expect they have the corresponding metaphysical properties.
ii) Tigers Eye comes in golden, red and blue forms most commonly and in nature the forms are changing due to natural re-heating processes underground. This can be replicated and used to make the different colourations artificially. We go out of our way to source natural formed material wherever possible.

We will sell examples of heat treated crystals where natural material is not readily available. HOWEVER whenever we state that a crystal is NATURAL that is to reassure the buyer that a difficult to find specimen is 100% natural and has not been treated in any way.

b) Natural crystal enhancement by adding metalised finishes. Very popular at the moment are crystals which are bonded with titanium and other metals to create a variety of multicoloured finishes e.g. Aura quartz. As the underlying crystal is 100% natural it is perfectly logical that the properties are unaffected and they would be fine to work with. If you like them well why not! Furthermore the metals do have their own properties and could provide additional desirable enhancements,

In response to requests from you we have a limited number of aura finished crystals which have been coated in a metal finish.

c) Dyed crystals. The practice of dyed crystals goes back to antiquity and it is very very common today. Agates have always been dyed to create bright and interesting coloured pieces and there has been an explosion in dyed rocks and minerals in recent times. Where this is clearly attributed and items being sold as decorative objects we can see very little to object to providing there has been no intention to deceive.  However in our field strong colouration is often used to grade material and therefore has a big effect on value. It can therefore be used to justify a higher price than the true grade of the crystal material warrants. In the worst examples dyed material can be produced to imitate more expensive stones and this is clearly done with an intention to trick the unwary buyer. This has created a lively industry where dyed stones are intended to deceive the client.

Examples of this commonly are for example taking Howlite and using dye to pass it off as Turquoise. Dyed Lapis Lazuli is enhanced to mislead the buyer as to its grade and therefore value. Many crystals can be dyed to enhance the natural colour or even create a branded unnatural colour which is simply considered commercially attractive.

We will not supply any material where dye has been used including brightly coloured natural crystals like Howlite dyed red or blue.

Please be assured that we do not seek to belittle anyone who likes or enjoys using some of these varieties and not everyone would agree with some of our choices however we wish to be transparent.

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