Gem-grade crystals will captivate any discerning eye with their unparalleled clarity and transparency, but can be prohibitively expensive. Luckily, there are ways to make crystals more cost-effective.

Tumbled stones are first graded according to size, before receiving an overall quality rating based on clarity of stone; clearer stones receive higher grades.

Raw

Raw crystals are gem-like rocks that have not been polished or tumbled, leaving rough edges and no flashy sheen like those seen in tumbled stones. Raw crystals are thought to possess powerful healing capabilities and may change one’s perspective, instill positive energies, and reconnect people to nature.

Healing experts often suggest cleansing raw crystals regularly to keep them active and effective. One way is soaking them in water or salt for an extended period to remove dust and debris; another popular practice involves placing it on your windowsill during full moon nights so as to take full advantage of its revitalizing energies.

Raw crystals can also be programmed by visualizing them with specific purposes in mind, which will activate their metaphysical properties and help you achieve your goals more quickly. For example, if you need to reduce stress at work by placing an amazonite raw crystal near your workspace.

Polished

Polishing often enhances a crystal’s beauty and energy. Without polishing, moonstone or labradorite would not radiate with all their brilliance or show its otherworldly interior as vividly, nor would included quartz have such stunning interior spaces to explore.

Polishing can be accomplished either manually or using specialized machinery. Softer stones like quartz tend to be more easily polished by hand than harder materials; ancient shamans and healers used this practice to craft personal talismans and healing tools out of raw crystals.

People sometimes prefer raw stones because of the reduced processing they undergo, however all crystals must be cleansed to feel right for you and in harmony. Connect with your crystal and experience what it offers – septarian Stone shown here has a gray matrix with brown shrinkage crack linking and yellow calcite that fills its cracks – before purchasing one for yourself. Shop Septarian Stone.

Pointed

Crystal points and towers can help you manifest your intentions with ease. By amplifying energy, cleansing auras, transmuting negativity from environments and within, and supporting meditation by focusing and relaxing your mind – crystal points and towers provide powerful support for mental, emotional, and physical well-being improvement.

Crystal points contain multiple sharp pinnacle ends known as terminations that are polished for an enhanced appearance and energetic properties of the stone. Some crystals naturally have points while others don’t; those without points possess vibratory energy that spreads throughout their composition.

Crystal towers are composed of natural crystals cut at their bases in order to stand upright, which can then be carved and polished to achieve crystal point shapes or cut in traditional tower formation. Crystal towers add energy and life into any home or office environment and serve as beautiful centerpieces for crystal grids.

Convection

Based on crystal growth rates, inhomogeneities in crystalline composition may become quite prominent and seriously reduce predicted yields. Mass transfer often accounts for these inhomogeneities.

Convection is a single or multiphase fluid flow driven by heterogeneity in material property distributions and body forces, most often density and buoyancy. A hotter, less dense region at the bottom moves upward while colder, denser material from above moves down.

An effective way to demonstrate convection is with a classic Sweet rainbow science demonstration with KMnO4 (see this teacher resource for details). Students should observe multiple small cells coalesce into larger ones before collapsing to form the visibleised bundles seen tumbling down from above.

Note that this method should not be used to obtain high quality crystals suitable for diffraction, since it often results in twinned or statically disordered crystals. Instead, slow cooling of the solution usually produces higher quality results.