Natural Art
Minerals and crystals fascinate man for thousands of years. Their geometry, color and shine provide unmatched visual experience. But this amazing beauty still is relatively unknown, despite the fact that many of these stones are turned in some of the most beautiful works-of-art that have found their places in prestigious museums and collections.
Azurite Suns. The azurite is soft, dark-blue mineral, favored by the collectors. The Azurite sun represents unique form of the crystal and for now, such crystals are found in only one location in the world – Malbunka mine in the desert of North Australia. They are formed by the penetration of hydrothermal solutions, rich in copper ions, between the layers of clay and sandstone. Usually, the azurite in clay has a spherical shape but only in the mine Mulbunka discoid blue suns were found.
Vivianite. The tin mine Morokokala in Bolivia is known with the discovery of beautiful vivianite crystals, the dream of every collector, in 1981. The manager of the mine thought that the miners are spending too much time in collecting crystals rather than performing their duties and blew the entire area. The layers with deposits of the mineral were flooded and as a consequence of that, the discovery of vivianite crystals nowadays happens rarely. "Earth and Man" National Museum has one of the few kept specimens of that mine, with high aesthetic qualities, with shiny, dark green crystals.
The kyanite is one of the most attractive blue minerals in nature. Its color, matched well with well-formed big crystals, makes it extremely valuable to the collectors. The kyanite is unique with the fact that it’s hardness is different in the length and across the crystals.
The pyrite is iron sulfide, known to our civilization from its early days. The Navajún mine in Spain, that is a source of beautiful pyrite crystals, was established in 1960. Due to the high concentration of remarkable specimens of pyrite, the mine is considered a natural phenomenon. The perfect pyrite cubes, with mirror surfaces, are formed naturally and are not cut or polished afterwards. The variety of shapes and forms are numerous and some of them are real work-of-art. These natural sculptures have inspired artists and architects and form part of the biggest mineral museums in the world.
Native copper. The copper is one of the well-known and useful metals and important ore as well, that was mined from ancient times. It was widely used due to its specific properties: conductivity, ductility and durability, this is the second most commonly used metal in the world.
The native copper crystals are beautifully formed in unique aesthetic masterpieces that are highly valued by the collectors.
The Michigan mines, USA, are well-known source of native copper. The recently found complex dendritic aggregates in Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan are extremely popular among the collectors. They are pinnated, similar to a tree, and represent subparallel adhesions of skeleton crystals.