Gem Profile- Quartz with Inclusions Part 2

Sometimes forming in radial fans and often as singular, elongated crystals, tourmaline has six sides, much like a pencil. It can be included in several different types of rocks.

Also known as Green Hair Quartz, Fleches d'Amour (Love Arrows), or Cupid's Darts, water-clear quartz with included tourmaline crystals is often faceted or cut into various shapes.

These stones make striking jewelry designs.

Please be aware that the stone prehnite can be confused with tourmalated quartz.

PIctured: A collection of faceted tourmalated quartz, one set into a wire pendant by Dale Cougar Armstrong.

Kim Burns wire-wrapped this approximately 14ct, 13mm x 19mm tourmalated quartz stone with Argentium Silver wire, using Dale's Prong Ring DVD.

Have you seen clear quartz that looks as though a snowflake, branch or leaf has been suspended inside?

This type of included quartz is known as dendritic quartz.

No, the images within the quartz aren't fossils, rather they are dendrite (meaning tree) crystal forms of either chlorite or iron oxides.


Pictured: Examples of faceted quartz with dendrite inclusions, known as dendritic quartz.

Private collection, Dale Armstrong and dendrite quartz pendant by Gina Smith

The latest label for this exotically included quartz, lodolite or lodalite, translates to "stone from mud" because the quartz crystals often formed in clay or mud pockets.

While the silica and quartz were forming, additional minerals became involved. Heavier materials like cookeite and chlorite settled to the bottom of the quartz formation in colors including white, beige, yellow, orange, green, light blue, light brown, and light pink.

Sometimes the chlorite minerals formed their known crystal shapes, such as rosettes, balls, or radiating spheres. Other times, the deposit froze during formation, appearing as clouds.

Occasionally the green can appear mossy, but included macrocrystalline quartz should not be confused with cryptocrystalline moss agate. This will be covered in future articles in this quartz series.

Other materials within lodolite quartz include iron and calcite. When this quartz contains mainly bright orange iron oxides mixed with cream and white calcite, it can be labeled "Leolite."

Whatever you decide to call it, chlorite-included quartz is fabulous!

More examples of chlorite and calcite included "Garden" quartz. Private collection, Dale Armstrong and Natural quartz crystals from Brazil, with chlorite inclusions and clouds.

So what happens when a quartz crystal stops growing and another mineral crystallizes on top of it, coating the original crystal with thousands of tiny colored crystals? Then, if additional silica enters the same cavity and another quartz crystal grows over the combination, ghost-like crystals appear within a single specimen. These are called phantoms.

Otherworldly and rare, phantom crystals can be composed of many materials, including sand, clay, chlorite, actinolite, mica, or iron minerals like goethite and hematite.

Phantoms can also form when temperature changes during the crystal's formation temporarily interrupt growth. Once conditions stabilize, the crystal continues growing normally.

Phantoms are most often found in rock crystal, and occasionally in amethyst or smoky quartz.

While some lapidaries cut and polish large phantom specimens into crystal balls, eggs, or spheres, most are smaller. They make excellent pendants using wire techniques, such as the Caged Crystal, which preserves the specimen perfectly.


Pictured: A few of the water quartz crystals in my personal collection, showing a variety of phantoms and an unusual specimen that comes from Tibet. Notice not only the exotic crystal scepter growth, but also the clay inclusions within the bottom crystal.