the Petoskey stone is the state stone of michigan. it is a form of rock that is petrified coral deposited by glaciers. they look pretty wild!
did you know that states had stones? actually, states may have a state mineral, state rock or stone, AND a state gemstone! here is a list.
california’s state mineral is Gold (1965), which does not surprise me. i haven’t heard of these other two, though: its state rock or stone is Serpentine (1965). its state gemstone is Benitoite (1985).
i’ve been thinking about rose quartz recently because i finally started watching steven universe. when i got my ears pierced for my birthday, the week after the loma prieta earthquake in 1989, as a consolation for canceling my ice skating birthday party, the place my mom took me to in the mall (vallco!) had a tiny cardboard standee on the counter with birthstones. i was happy that my birthstone was rose quartz, because it’s in the red family of things, being pink, and i’d decided sorta recently that my favorite color was red. later, i found out that some sources said my birthstone was supposed to be opal, but i didn’t care, because my ears were already pierced with these little tiny rose quartz studs. they remained in my ears for basically 10 years (except for some tuesdays, because we didn’t have P.E. on tuesdays in grade school, and i very occasionally wore dangly angel earrings. they’re still my favorite earrings. i lost one a few years ago–it fell out of my jacket pocket.)
here is a list of all the gems in steven universe along with their chemical formulas and some cultural notes. The Science of Steven Universe, Gem Names: A Method to the Madness?
i recognized most of the gem names in steven universe, including most of the fusion names. for example, malachite is a very common low-level gem in world of warcraft. you mine it out of copper veins. it’s green. so when it was the name of a fusion in steven universe, i wondered… are the fusions in su actually made of those gems in real life? the answer is no (i’m pretty sure). lol.
a former student gave me some crystals. i keep them in a clear glass bowl.
my mom is into rocks, or at least she was when i was a child. we both liked turquoise. i still have a beaded necklace with turquoise birds from that time. the birds are facing the same way (if you hold one end of the necklace and let it dangle), so if you put it around your neck, one of the birds always ends up upside down. i kind of loved this. we had these box sets from gift shops in the southwest, from when we’d road trip out to the grand canyon. i remember carefully removing the lid of one of these cardboard boxes, carefully, like a box of chocolates, and staring at the names of the small rocks inside, stuck to pieces of paper glued to some cotton fluff or something. i don’t remember their names. well besides turquoise. maybe onyx? jasper? maybe i should ask her if she’s still into rocks.