Garden Quartz, freeform

I have mentioned many times about how other minerals and materials can become trapped inside crystals and rocks to change their color or appearance, and Garden Quartz is no exception!

"Garden Quartz" is an informal name — not a technical term — to describe the appearance of the mineral chlorite which has settled to the bottom of a piece of clear quartz. Many pieces of quartz have wisps/flecks of chlorite suspended in them, but "Garden Quartz" usually implies that the chlorite is aggregated in the bottom of the piece. In the above photo, it is easy to see a "bubble" of quartz that is transparent as glass, with opaque chlorite forming a mossy-looking "garden" below.

The word "chlorite" is often used by casual collectors of crystals to describe any greenish inclusion in quartz, but chlorite actually is a group of specific minerals with various amounts of magnesium, manganese, iron, aluminum, and other elements present. Different concentration of these elements can make chlorite appear brown, or even pink, but the majority of the formulations have a greenish-hue of some degree. Probably the most common type of chlorite is Clinochlore: (Mg,Fe²⁺)₅Al(Si₃Al)O₁₀(OH)₈, but chamosite, cookeite, and other varieties exist.

This piece of Garden Quartz is a "freeform" shape, which means it didn't grow into a full crystal (with a point) and wasn't cut/polished into a sphere or other regular, geometric configuration. This is often done to preserve the appearance of the quartz as it was found in nature and makes the sample very unique, as no two can be quite alike.

Garden Quartz looks like a little world unto itself, a place where fairies would possibly dance and play with each other. These little crystalline worlds are great places to sometimes retreat from the real stresses of life.