Thinking back to my childhood, I was around twelve years of age at the time when my first awareness of the value of pearls occurred to me. It was during the summer, we had a young Japanese college student who came to live with us. Her name was Masako. Masako was from Osaka. At the time of having entered the US, she was only allowed to bring in but a limited amount of money and she did not want to return home. She had asked my mother if she would help to sell some pearls that her family had sent with her to the US ? Masako took down from the shelf in the bedroom closet a box which from which she pulled out a folded cloth. Unwrapping the cloth there were several very large egg - sized pearls. They were as my mother said the largest pearls that my mom had ever seen or would she ever see again! (I think the reason that I remember this detail is because I heard her retell the story a few times to her friends.) Masako told her that they were handed down through her family who were descendants of Japanese royalty. My mother looking at the pearls and then folding them up into the cloth, took a long pause, then said to her, put these away and N-E-V-E-R sell them. Don't worry about the money, I will help you. I relay this story because it must have left an impression on me to remember this small event out of the many things over my life time. I only wish now that I had been more inquisitive about the pearl's history and if they could talk the stories they could tell?

 Pearls from the South Seas are the most valued of pearls. 
The pearl trade in Japan has a rich history of female Japanese divers (Ama) who are renowned for how long they are able to hold their breath - up to two minuets under water while collecting mollusks and placing them in netted purses worn on their chest.  The Ama free dive into the ocean depths up to 100 to 150 times a day. There are about 2,000 "Ama" left today down from when there were once around 15,000. Currently, over time due to their deep search for pearls later wore white protective diving suits and helmets.

China: Early woodcuts recorded pearl divers in 1637 in the encyclopedia of technology. 

Persian Gulf: Once a leader is exporting pearls but is now replaced with exportation of oil. 

Things you may ask about pearls:
Pearls are a sustainable gem as the oysters are not killed when the pearl is removed. Pearl farmers take care as the older oysters produce the better quality pearls.

Kokichi Mikimoto, considered the father of the cultured pearl industry was successful in cultivating a method to produce a perfectly round pearl called the Akoya Pearl and granted a patent in 1916. 

Natural pearls are more organic looking than cultured pearls. You can test if a pearl is real by rubbing it against your front teeth side-to-side. Real pearls have a gritty texture from the layers of nacre. Fake pearls will be smooth and could be made from glass or plastic. Real pearls have a luster produced from layers of calcium carbonate other wise called nacre.

One last very important thing to note: Please, wear your pearls! Pearls benefit from wear against the skin to keep them from drying out. Keep them in a soft cloth or pouch but not in an air tight container as pearls need to breathe.

You can not go wrong when wearing pearls as there  is no set rules when to wear them. Pearls are  "okay" to wear with casual jeans and perfectly Devine with dressier evening attire. Pearls make a heartfelt wedding gift from mom to daughter.
 So all said, enjoy your pearl jewelry! We invite you to see our latest collection of pearl jewelry featuring freshwater pearls, baroque, and some are combined with other gemstones see pictured below.. 

 This year the festival will be held virtually due to the pandemic. But not to worry, there will be plenty of enjoyment to be had with lilac themed window decorations and a walking tour map showing locations of lilacs. The maps can be obtained at local downtown businesses.
​ At Touchstone Gallery our 'natural art experts' have had tons of fun decorating the gallery for the joyous event welcoming in Spring. They will be there to answer your questions and to introduce you to some of the most fascinating natural art ever created by "Mother Nature".  We are fully stocked with many more new items including amethyst, the star of this year's event as we have many wonderful affordably priced amethyst in jewelry, geode hearts, cathedrals, amethyst portals, wings and an array of amazing crystals.  We also have many new fossils, natural home décor items, and minerals. We invite you to stop by the gallery and to take a walk around the plaza to view the window displays all the while taking in the intoxicating perfume of lilacs. Yay, Spring!

Do you have someone in mind who has a May birthday or a twentieth and thirty-fifth wedding anniversary? Why not present them with a lovely emerald specimen from Touchstone Gallery? 

​ Emerald is a type of beryl with Chromium, vanadium, and iron are the trace elements that cause emerald’s color. The presence or absence of each and their relative amounts determine the exact color of an emerald crystal. 

Emerald Jewelry offered by Touchstone Gallery

Touchstone Gallery for the month of April is offering a fun to wear line of Herkimer Diamonds. Herkimer is not a diamond but gets the name from its locality in Herkimer County, NY. It is a quartz with 7.5 on the hardness scale. The really special thing about this stone is that it is double terminated, in the metaphysical world double terminated crystals with its pure, crystal light, clears the chakras, opening channels for spiritual energy to flow. The double terminated quartz also lends itself to making beautiful settings with a point at the bail end and the drop. Our customers really love the BoHo look of this line of jewelry with its casual style that can be dressed up or down.

Care: Although as before mentioned Herkimer Diamonds are a durable stone, it is advised to take your jewelry off when doing things like gardening or other physical activities that might knock against the settings. A gentle cleaning with a soft brush and a mild soap or glass cleaner is all you need to keep your crystals sparkling and your chakras humming. OMM. Namaste!

​To find out more about Herkimer Diamonds we encourage you to speak with one of our natural art experts. We invite you to see this line of jewelry either for yourself or as a unique and affordable gift.
Taos, Sedona, Santa Fe

​Aquamarine, even the name conjures up the mystery of the gemstone that ancient mariners believed would protect them at sea and bring calm waters. The beauty of this gemstone is the green-blue to blue variety of the mineral beryl, usually a clear gem with no inclusions. The crystal formation is hexagonal and can grow into large crystals big enough to cut into jewelry. 
Origins: 
Brazil: The most abundant source for Aquamarine is from Brazil,  in the state of Minas-Gerais, where it is found in pegmatites.
Siberia: First documented discovery in 1723 where abundant sources were mined. The most being in 1796. More than seventy kilograms of gem-quality aquamarine was mined that year. 
United States: Early in the 20th century Individuals could hike the mountains and find fragments on the ground without digging. Colorado had an abundant source of deposits at one time but with mining and tourism, not so much. 
​California has some small veins that don't produce high yields and now have become tourist attractions where one can go and see old mine camps and play prospector for a day. 

Amethyst is our most popular purple mineral at touchstone. There are so many products to enjoy this gemstone mineral and not just made into jewelry. But, as Décor too! I Like to think of it as 'jewelry' for a room. 

Origin: Most of the amethyst that we offer to our customers comes to us from Southern regions of Brazil, Bolivia or Uruguay where it is mined deep under ground. The Brazilian amethyst is known for its larger crystal forms. While the amethyst from Uruguay is known for its deeper, richer purple. From Bolivia comes the large clusters, better yet the Bolivian Bouquets that we carry.
​ Amethyst is formed in volcanic "vugs"  that were formed from bubbling lava gases that when cooled left behind voids. Within these voids mineral rich solutions then washed/seeped through leaving behind layers of minerals that over millions of years then formed quartz along the walls of the empty spaces. Amethyst is a violet form of quartz, which is a silica, the most abundant mineral on earth. The colors of these mineral rich solutions contained iron and other transitional metals which when exposed to irradiation cause the violet color we see in amethyst. Amethyst comes in a variety of colors from lavender/lilac to shades of pink to deep purple. 

Pictured below shows how amethyst is mined in 

Prasiolite is a  yellow - green variety of quartz. It is a heat treated amethyst that turns from purple to green. It can be heated in a laboratory oven or it can also be found naturally in rock bearing amethyst next to younger lava flows.  When quartz containing iron impurities is heated by lava and turns to purple. Then, at a later time that lava flow is covered by another younger lava flow that heats up the amethyst and turns it to natural prasiolite.
​ 
* "Green amethyst" is a misnomer (an incorrect name) that some people use for prasiolite. Amethyst, by definition, is a purple variety of quartz. That makes "green amethyst" an incorrect name, just as "yellow emerald" and "red emerald" are misnomers for "heliodor" and "red beryl," respectively.
Read more on * Geology.com

Care of prasiolite and amethyst: Prasiolite and amethyst should be stored in darkness and not exposed to strong sunlight or some types of artificial light over long periods of time, as it can fade. Which makes sense when you think of how it was created.

New Item: "Portals" Were these portals cut from once large stalactites? Or were they crosscuts from geodes? Imagine the size that they must have started out as? Touchstone offers these vertical presentations of large amethyst  slices on stands. They make for very attractive décor items. Notice that the centers are hollow with wonderful  toothy crystals forming around the void. 

 ​​Although you may think of garnets as a red gemstone they also come in so many more colors depending on what elements influence it. Garnets are made of several closely related minerals and come in many variations. They are divided into two subgroups groups, those containing aluminum and those containing calcium. 

Garnet Names that you may see in our jewelry descriptions:
Spessartite garnet is an orange to red gemstone. This type of Garnet contains aluminum as the second element. 
Hessonite (Grossular Group) Garnet Due to its orange-brown color, as well as its historic connection to the spice-producing country of Sri Lanka, this garnet is also known as “cinnamon stone.”
Tsavorite (Grossular Group) is an emerald green variety of garnet, discovered in Africa along the Kenya border in 1967 and then marketed by Tiffany and CO. in 1974. It is the most expensive form of garnet due to its rarity. 
Uvarovite (Grossular Group) is a green garnet that usually occurs as crystals too small to cut. It is sometimes set as clusters in jewelry. It is a rich bright green color as seen in the pendant.
Perhaps surprise your January birthday loved one with a colorful garnet that is unexpected in green uvarovite? 
Raspberry Garnet (Grossular Group) New for touchstone gallery. 

How to tell garnet from ruby? Have you ever wondered how to tell the two red gemstones apart? Red garnets can have hints of orange or pink while rubies are vivid red with occasional purple or blue secondary hues. Hold a garnet in front of a light until you can spot its spectrum reflected in the stone. If you see two rainbows with no yellow or green bands, you're likely looking at a ruby. Rubies are more rare of the two gemstones due to the way they are formed without any influence of silica which is the most abundant mineral on earth.

Sapphire is a precious gemstone that shares the same mineral properties as ruby. They are both a corundum, consisting of aluminum oxide (α-Al2O3) with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. However, Ruby, the mysterious gemstone that I wrote about in July's blog, does not have the influence of silica and so it is a highly prized red gemstone. Silica being the most abundant mineral on earth for some unknown reason did not come in contact with the other minerals casing the ruby to then become a sapphire.
 Sapphires are typically blue, but can also be in fancy colors like purple, pink, yellow, orange and green. Some even have two colors and called "Parti" sapphires. 

​Susan's Pick of the Month is this stunning sapphire necklace in multi colors. This necklace is light and airy to wear in our transitional warm to cooler weather. Its like a party in a necklace with all of its fun colors. Watermelon "jelly bean" shaped tourmalines are the gemstones that play with light against the colorful sapphires. 
Touchstone has sapphire jewelry in bracelets, rings and faceted beaded necklaces.

We invite you to visit us on the web by clicking on the picture or in one of our store locations:
​Sedona, Taos and Santa Fe.