A druzy plate, mostly purple with green running through it. No flower formations on this one.
Druzy is what you get when a surface is covered in crystals too small to pick out individually. It happens when a great many growth points start at once and every one of them competes for the same supply of silica, so none gets far. On a plate where fewer points started, the same amount of material would have built a handful of large crystals instead.
Which is the trade-off. Druzy gives up size and gains surface, and a densely covered plate throws back far more light than a few big crystals ever would.
Keep it out of direct sunlight. Sustained UV breaks down the iron centres that produce the purple, and amethyst that fades does not come back.
Mineral: Amethyst, the purple variety of quartz (SiO₂), with celadonite
Crystal system: Trigonal
Origin: Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Hardness: 7 on the Mohs scale; hard, though fine druzy points chip easily
Treatment: None
Dimensions: 11.33 x 8 x 27 cm
Weight: 520 g Note: Supplied on a bespoke gold stand
You will receive the exact piece photographed.