Downtown Excelsior Springs, MO merchants are gearing up for the 2019 Chocolate Tour. 400 ticket holding chocolate lovers will fill downtown eating, drinking, smelling and completely basking in the glory that is chocolate. At Sturm Bros.’ we love chocolate too, chocolate colored gems that is. This year Sturm Bros.’ will give each ticket holder a genuine 3 mm smoky quartz gemstone.
Smoky quartz is also known as cairngorm after the Scottish mountains where it was first discovered, the Cairngorm Mountains. Smoky quartz is the national gem of Scotland. The color range of this gemstone is from smoky-yellow to nearly black. The nearly black variety of smoky quartz is called morion and was a standard in Scottish mourning jewelry. There is a connection between the amount of radiation in the surrounding rock masses and the intensity and deepness of the color of smoky quartz.
Smoky quartz can be found all over the world with deposits in Sri Lanka, Spain, Switzerland, and the US. Maine, New Hampshire and the Pike’s Peak region of Colorado each have deposits of smoky quartz. Quartz is the most common single mineral in the earth’s crust and is found in igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock. It is usually the last major mineral to crystallize in the molten rock as it cools. Gem quality quartz occurs most commonly in vein or geode deposits.
Extremely facet-able and occurring in a rainbow of colors, quartz is an amazing and versatile gem for jewelry. Imagination and quartz –nearly limitless.
