#Semiprecious Gemstone

[shinythingsbyorindrake]

Today's Fuck it Friday feature: Orb Guardian Pendant Set! ...Because I had two orbs. More pictures are available on the gallery page, and they happen to be fit and ready for travel. Let's ignore the fact that I forgot to queue this, shall we.

Shiny Things Etsy | Shiny Things Patreon

[meldritchhorror]

.

[jindalgems]

Healing properties of Green Stone: Emerald and Tourmaline

Numerous varieties of gemstones have specific uses and fantastic healing properties. All the gemstones are not similar and have different looks and colours. The healing properties and benefits are also different based on the gemstones' texture, colour, size and shape. Some gemstones are naturally available in the wonders of nature, while man has created others for different purposes. Many people buy semiprecious gemstone beads jewelry, which looks attractive and has fantastic benefits. Greenstone, Emerald, Jade, and Tourmaline are popular gemstones with many unique properties. In this blog, we will discuss everything about the properties of these precious Gemstones in detail.

[oncillamoltres]

At this point, I think it’d be rood of you to not give him a last name, lol.

lmao

[tajmahalgemsworld]

ভুল গ্রহরত্ন ধারণ করলে কী ক্ষতি হয় ধারণের আগে জ্যোতিষশাত্রের কোন কথা জানা জরুরি

Watch More

[beyondthisdarkhouse]

We really did something when we invented prism deck lights...

"Oh hi don't notice me, just your friendly neighborhood FUNCTIONAL SEMIPRECIOUS GEMSTONE"

This is a seriously underexploited aesthetic. Like yes crystals are all the rage and we've seen salt rock lamps, and there's a French designer doing some cool stuff with lighting forced through prisms of imperfect stone

but I feel like there is SO MUCH MORE OUT THERE to do!

I like all the crystal suncatchers out there, except that the crystals are SO SHINY that every so often a concentrated beam of light meanders directly into your retina. They need to learn to chill out a bit.

[insipid-drivel]

Probably one of the worst blows to me psychologically as a chronically ill and permanently disabled person is that... I didn't have a very ambitious childhood dream. I never wanted to be President or an astronaut, or even a dragon, and I'll still never realize my rather pathetic little dream.

I just wanted to be a jeweler; someone you'd go to for cool one-of-a-kind commissions and custom jobs using precious and semiprecious stones and metals... but I'll still never get there.

Before my mind and body started to quit on me, I dreamed of going to college to learn to make beautiful art out of precious stones and metals that would make people feel beautiful and represent love. I wanted a simple vocation, wasn't going to get me anywhere close to being a millionaire, but I could at least hope to support myself, and maybe even see people come in for commissioned pieces on the good reviews of my past customers that loved my work.

Maybe I'd have my own separate workshop and sell online or out of booths at faires and cons and farmer's markets. Where I live, there are natural deposits of geodes like amethysts and other quartz you can mine yourself (amethyst especially is surprisingly easy to literally dig up out of the mud with gardening tools and a bucket), and I could've boasted about mining my own gemstones ethically on my own dime with my own hands, so no one who wore my jewelry would worry about their engagement ring or pendant funding blood diamonds.

I knew it wasn't gonna happen before I turned 13. I'm 32 now, bedridden most of the time, currently having yet another flareup of both pain with a side-bonus of an infection my doctor can't seem to diagnose (reinfection #4, at that), and don't even have the energy to sit up and slide a bead onto a piece of string, and reaching for the bead itself would make me gasp with pain right now.

I just wanted to be a jeweler. I wanted to be a person, not a patient.

[shyambaba7773]

Healing with Citrine

♥ Happiness ♥ Prosperity ♥ Generosity ♥ Creativity ♥ Pleasure ♥ Protection ♥ Strength ♥ Alignment ♥ Confidence ♥ Stability ♥ Moderation ♥ Energy ♥ Comfort ♥ Success ♥ Truth ♥ Goodness ♥ Warmth ♥ Digestion ♥ Assimilation ♥ Enjoyment of life ♥ Spiritual growth

Citrine energises every level of life.  It cleanses the chakras and opens the intuition.  Citrine attracts wealth, prosperity and success.  It imparts joy, wonder, delight and enthusiasm.  Raises self-esteem and self-confidence.  Stimulates the brain, strengthening the intellect.  Citrine promotes motivation, activates creativity and encourages self-expression.  Enhances concentration and revitalises the mind.  It releases negative traits, depression, fears and phobias.  Emotionally balancing.

Energising and recharging, Citrine also reverses degenerative disease and helps balance chemical imbalances in the body.  Beneficial in the treatment of diabetes, it stimulates digestion, the spleen and pancreas.  Negates kidney and bladder infections.  Citrine helps eye problems, increases blood circulation, detoxifies the blood, activates the thymus and balances the thyroid.  Relieves constipation and removes cellulite.

November birthstone

[shinythingsbyorindrake]

Today's Fuck It Friday feature, somewhat ironically brought to mind because it feels very much like a spring day in these Northeastern US parts: Dreaming of Spring. Some more words and many more pictures here, and the set is available for the snagging right here.

Shiny Things Etsy | Shiny Things Patreon

[newvegascowboy]

so like a year and a half ago i made this post which had some minor world building vis a vis legion fashion but. I wanted to do more of it. so i did!

I kept the color palette largely the same, staying with blues, reds, and yellows. Standard outfits are just plain tunics with a belted sash, but lot of the outfits feature woven or beaded accessories. Head covering are common to prevent painful sunburns, and most clothing is loose and lightweight, made out of corn silk fiber or lightweight cotton to be breathable in the desert heat.

Sashes or sturdier garments are made of wool or a heavier woven cotton. Accessories are usually embroidered or beaded according to the wearer's taste or the region where the culture is from. Fancier outfits include more elaborate embroidery or jewelry. Shoes tend to be soft soled leather or sandals that may be beaded or have semiprecious gemstones like turquoise or jasper.

[nakedmusicscore]

BERYL

Beryl is a girl's name of Greek origin. It is derived from beryllium, a natural mineral from which light green semiprecious gemstones are made. 

[y-rhywbeth2]

'No dreams can come to one who wears diamonds on at least two “sides” of his or her head—and the presence of a whole diamond anywhere in direct flesh contact with the neck or head gives a +2 bonus to all saving throws vs. enchantment/charm spells and equivalent psionic sciences and devotions.' - Volo's Guide to All Things Magical

brb; bedazzling my Durge.

'Witherite commonly occurs in large, fibrous deposits containing translucent areas large enough to yield faceted, pale yellow to whitish gemstones. More rarely, this semiprecious stone is found in clusters of translucent yellowish crystals that are also faceted when they are cut into gemstones. Witherites only magical property is that, when set in a special electrum setting and worn in direct, flesh-to-stone contact by a human or demihuman, it provides immunity to withering magics or psionic abilities and the reversed, damaging form of necromantic sphere priest spells.' - Volo's Guide to All Things Magical

And that does mean full immunity to psionics apparently, not just damaging/withering effects: 'witherite confers psionic immunity.'

Things that would be useful to have on hand during a mind flayer invasion: jewellery.

[raven-6-10]

So I think that Galahd should have:

A huge amount of gemstones and precious metal veins all over the islands, all kinds too. Gold, silver, copper and tin. Diamonds and emeralds and rubies and topazes and other precious and semiprecious stones.

At some point cracked the secret of making synthetic gemstones and proceeded to run with it because what do you mean I can have rubies and sapphires in the exact shades of red and deep blue that I want!? And! Enough to make this one necklace I designed that's probably going to be worth more that some families yearly income!? Fuck yeah!

Anyway, this is going to have interesting consequences for their entire economy that I will probably tackle at some point but right now I'm thinking that:

Any person who has money and time, goes to the artisans to have gems crafted to their exact design. Some of those gemcrafters double as gold- and silversmiths, or have connections to them. So you can get the perfect gemstone and them immediately go and have them put in your dream jewellery.

(Assuming you don't want to turn it into beads, because the ones for Official Occasions are generally something that everyone makes and decorates personally.)

(The everyday beads are from coloured glass or stained wood, and made by the dozens by clan's crafters.)

The masters of crafting artisanal gemstones command high prices for their impeccable work.

People still mine the gemstones from the ground, but there's less, hmm, push for those, I would say. People no longer try to mine in places that might be a bit too risky because there's a rich vein there, they just pick a safer spot.

Those natural gems are also used for beads and jewellery, but at lower price than the artificial ones, because the quality might be all over the place.

That's fine, though. Because the natural gems are the only ones that get exported from Galahd. And the mainlanders will be willing to pay any price they ask for them.

(In theory, a mainlander could have commissioned a gem crafter for their work. But they all seem prefer the natural ones, because they're weird like that.)

I'm also going to borrow an idea from the Stormlight Archive and say that on Galahd, money is made from gemstones. But first, I have to redesign the system a little, because the original is a little to complicated for my needs.

[asinusrufus]

Magical Gemstones: An Abridged Guide

Magical gemstones are a type of talisman made of semiprecious stones —such as hematite, carnelian or amethyst— that were worn set in rings or as pendants and their size ranges from 1.5 cm to 3 cm.These gemstones haven't magical, protective characteristics because of the nature of the gem itself but because the representations of Gods and holy names carved conceded them virtues through holy dynamis: This is, among other things, the inherent power of divine names and/or their representations.

These depictions are normally inverted (negative) This, together with the fact that some of the gems show a certain degree of worn indicates that they were manipulated in some way—probably rubbed or even licked, in order to increase their efficacy—proves that they were not conceived as seals but as amulets or talismans.

A magical gemstone, to be considered as such, should have one or more of the following elements:

An iconographic language generally belonging to syncretic Gods or that combines Gods from different origins.

Charakteres (magical signs. They can be planetary, protective, etc.)

Voces magicae (Words of power and phrases whose formulation and structure may hide secret, sacred names of Gods as well as prayers or incantations dedicated to them, sometimes with the intention of controlling their emanations and daimonēs) and logoi (magical names, permutation of magical names and vocals).

The practice and use of magical voices was transmitted orally across the eastern Mediterranean, but it wasn't until the early 1st century b.c.e. the practice began to be included in written form. The abundance of amulets and gems with magical names and signs are evidence of this change of paradigm.

In addition, elements are usually complemented by two structural features:

The gemstone is engraved on both the obverse and the reverse, sometimes even on the edge.

The inscription appears directly and not in mirror writing.

These magic gemstones, in addition, can be magical gemstones stricto sensu and amuletic gems. The latter differ from the former in:

That the iconographic patterns they contain are explicitly described as belonging to amulets in textual sources such as Posidippus's Lithika

They bear a prophylactic inscription, usually "diaphylasse" (protect me!), "sōzon" (save me!) or "Heis Theos" (One God).

Its production began during the late Hellenistic period, but it was not until the 2nd and 4th centuries c.e. that it reached its apogee. Magical gemstones' imagery demonstrates the diversity and plurality of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Egyptian, Christian, Gnostic and Jewish representations and ideas from the Mediterranean from the Roman period, as well as the popularity and diversity of magical activities and practices.

These magic gemstones were rarely used for evil purposes, such as harming someone. Their most common use was to offer protection or solve personal health problems: those showing an ibis tied by an altar and including the command "pésse!" (digest) were used to heal indigestion and other stomach problems; others, depicting a uterus, offered represented a womb, offered protection during childbirth and guaranteed fertility.

Although most of these magic gemstones were used as jewelry, it is possible that they also had other uses, as part of a ritual to heal a patient or as a physical component for an incantation, such as those with depictions of Harpocrates seated on a lotus the nomina magica Bainchōōōch (Bainchōōōch, Ba of the Shadow, isn't only a vox magica/nomina magica but a God on their own right. PGM aside, Bainchōōōch appears in Pistis Sophia as a triple powered deity that descends onto Jesus, giving him his powers)

An interesting fact is that of the production of magical gemstones during the 17th and 18th centuries of our era. Although the production of these gems continued during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance —irregularly, of course— they reflected the magical and religious reflected the magical and religious practices of their historical context.

This, however, was not the case during the 17th and 18th centuries, where magical gemstones of great quality and sophistication were produced, which not only reproduced the iconographic motifs and logoi of the pre-existing graeco-egyptian magic gemstones, but also introduced new ones. An example of these gems are those with representations of Christ-Osiris or Jesus-Khepri

Sources:

Nagy, M. A., (2015) Engineering Ancient Amulets: Magical Gems of the Roman Imperial Period. in D. Boschung and J. Bremmer (eds), The Materiality of Magic (Morphomata 20). Paderborn, 205-240.

Faraone, C. (2018) The Transformation of Greek Amulets in Roman Imperial Times, Filadelfia; University of Pennsylvania Press.

Simone, M., (2005) (Re)Interpreting Magical Gems, Ancient and Modern en Shaked, S., Officina Magica: Essays on the Practice of Magic in Antiquity (IJS Studies in Judaica, vol. 4), Leiden; Brill, 141-170.

Campbell-Bonner Magical Gems Database (http://cbd.mfab.hu)

[bonefall]

took the “feel free” as a challenge a bit!! I wanted him to look like an old wrinklebag and ALSO a gemstone man so we got this, I don’t think it came across well but I imagine the wrinkles looking almost like he’s carved out of stone. Fur patches also based off a sphynx cat I met once who had hair only on the tail and ears in the wintertime - I don’t actually know how possible it is to find black opals in Britain

WRINKLEMAN OPAL

LOVE IT

Opal isn't found in England, but since Rock is a god, that's not much of a stretch. He can use any stone a person feels like drawing at that particular moment.

England is actually super lacking in gemstones anyway; the closest semiprecious stone that I could find in the area is a rare type of Flourite called Blue John

It's still a teeny bit out-of-range (specifically it's found in Derbyshire, which borders the regions I use) but Rock isn't a mortal.