Mr Klaban`s collection / second shop on Etsy-NatureMagicStones

I haven`t been writing for quite a while now, I was busy with my shops on Etsy, selling through other channels, too. Privately, I am getting married next month, started a part-time job that I love (will be a while till I can live from selling stones only), and I am expecting my second child. I hope I`ll be able to write the promised posts in the coming days.
"Mineralwise", in the last three months I visited the Czech Republic where I collected agates, viewed the collection of Mr J.Klaban (in this post), and visited a mineral museum, I went on a few collecting trips in Ireland, including Owenahincha (a few times), the Gortdrum Mine, Tynagh Mine, and the Wicklow Mts, and recently visited the mineral show in Gliwice in Poland.

Concerning my shop on Etsy- RockyRoadMinerals, I had made a few observations and decided to open a second shop- NatureMagicStones. I was selling a mixture of things in my first shop, starting from beach crafts supplies, ending on fine minerals, and I just felt like these things need to be separated. Therefore now, I focus on minerals in my first shop, and sell crafts supplies, aquarium rocks, ets in my second shop. Please visit them, if you are also interested in beautiful cabochons and faceted stones, such as rutilated quartz, emerald, garnet, epidote, schorl, kunzite, turquoise (untreated) etc.

Both shops here :

Visit my shop on Etsy- NatureMagicStones

Visit my shop on Etsy- RockyRoadMinerals

Now the colourful part of the post :)
In June I was in the Czech Republic on holiday. My husband-to-be has a neighbour who has been collecting minerals since he was a young gentleman (right now he is a little older gentleman ;) ). I visited Mr Klaban a few times during my holiday to listen to his stories and to see his enormous collection of minerals. He has amazing specimens of regional minerals, collected in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Germany, but also "foreign" pieces, as he has been collecting wherever he goes, and believe me- he has traveled the world left to right, up and down...
I would need a full day or two to see his collection in detail, and we simply didn`t have this time. We could discuss one specimen for 15 minutes, so it all moved very slowly... but well, how can you not stop and discuss if his pieces are so good? I was amazed how Mr Klaban remembered how, where and when he found all his specimens, and how carefully he handled them, as if they were his children.
Let me show you some of his specimens...

One of VERY MANY cases, here lovely agates and jaspers

One of my favourite agates from Mr Klaban`s collection

I think it is a polished, Slovakian opal, I must check it in my notes, though ;)

Calcite... how I wish I found something like this myself!!!

Opal (?)

giant smoky quartz

chalcedony

A huuuuge amethyst kept on the floor (the shelf would break in half under its weight)

a few big nodules and a huge quartz crystal

Czech garnet (?)

garnet (?)

a big vltavin, below the same specimen

Mr Klaban told me the story how he went looking for the vltavines with his friend, and they dag big holes for a long time with no success... After some time he relaxed for a while in some bushes and... there it was!, waiting for him on the surface, ready to be picked :) It kind of reminds me of my boy-friend, who always finds the best pieces without even trying too hard, usually when he goes for a smoke and kicks a few "ugly rocks" off his way ;)

I hope you enjoyed :) I will try to find my notes with exact localities for these stones, however, it could be hard as my storage place currently looks like after a tornado ;) Will try anyway ;)

How I gave up my job and decided to sell minerals :) About my shop :)

Hello everyone!
First of all, let me apologize for the long break. It was a busy period for me; a few things happened and I felt the need to rethink my life. You probably remember my post from October last year about the new job that I got, I was all excited and very happy. It was a managerial position in a big supermarket, I thought a dream position I had always wanted to have. After a few months, however, I decided to see things that I didn`t like and didn`t agree with and so decided I to leave.
The period that followed was filled with relaxing moments with my child, something that I had missed so much and no longer had time for, meetings with friends and learning about minerals. Since then I have been collecting many, many times- something that I must write about here, too. During that time I met a few people who let me understand that I should follow my dreams. And as my dream has always been to have my own business, I decided to go for it. At first I though of a stationary shop (not with minerals) and was making plans, but meanwhile I sold a few of my minerals online with ease, and thought that THIS IS THE WAY FOR ME TO FOLLOW! I should turn my passion into a profession. And here it is, my Etsy shop- RockyRoadMinerals.
This shop is a newborn baby that needs to be fed to grow, so I started promoting it on FB, Pinterest and Instagram. I constantly add new things and think of the ways in which I could make it better. I sell minerals (including self-collected), rough rocks, pebbles, real stone jewelry, cabochons and whatever comes from the Irish shore. Here are a few examples:

Pebbles with holes, Irish beach

Flint stones, Irish beach

Driftwood, crafts supplies, Irish beach

Aquamarine with smoky quartz, The Mourne Mts, Northern Ireland, self-collected

Double terminated quartz cluster, Paskistan

Quartz cluster, Pakistan

Orthoclase, Albite, Mica, Smoky Quartz, The Mourne Mts, Northern Ireland, self-collected

Black pebbles with white stripes, Irish beach

Pebble with a fossil, Irish beach

Water tumbled shell parts, Irish beach

Sea glass, Irish beach

Quartz crystal cluster, Owenahincha, Ireland, self-collected

Mica, the Mourne Mts, Northern Ireland, self-collected

Chalcedony, Doubravice, Czech Republic, self-collected

Hematite, Owenahincha, Ireland, self-collected

Irish beach set

Large turquoise cabochon, Nevada

Hag stone, Irish beach

Large quartz geode, Morocco

Amethyst cluster, Uruguay

Variscite cabochon, large, USA

Small turquoise cabochon, Nevada

Syrongopora Coral fossil, County Cork, Ireland, self-collected

Big quartz crystal cluster with double termination and black rutile

 Of course there is soooooooo much more in my shop and new things are added every day.
Please visit RockyRoadMinerals on Etsy.com and tell me what you think!
Oh, and visit my blog soon again, there are more posts coming very, very soon! :)

HUGE hematite from Owenahincha

One day MY BOYFRIEND ASKED ME IF I WOULD LIKE TO GO COLLECTING THE NEXT DAY (8-) )!!!!, so what else could I answer but "YES, OF COURSE!!!" It really doesn`t happen too often to hear something like this from him. Well, in fact, it doesn`t happen at all, this one time was an exception :)
The next day, together with my sis, we headed to the shore. No plan really, it was a spontaneous trip, we were kind of hoping to find some interesting spots on the way and stop at every one for a while. Unfortunately, this did not happen. We were driving around, along the shore, disappointed. I could see that Martin was getting discouraged; he was hungry, tired from the constant driving, annoyed as there were no good sites and the sky was getting gray. I suggested  that we could go to our old spot, Owenahincha, and see if we could find something there. It started to rain a little, and the tide was quite high, so the higher rocks located further down were inaccessible, we could only explore a small part of the beach. Luckily, we found some hematite after a few minutes and were lucky enough as Klaudia came across some REALLY HUGE BOULDER of white quartz, covered with hematite. She saw it 2-3metres above her head, stuck in clay and held by it. She climbed on the nearest rock and somehow managed to loosen it up, so it fell on the sand below. It was so big we couldn`t just take it like this, so we broke it into several smaller pieces, and as we did, it revealed more and more hematite. What a great finding!!!

The boulder already broken, Klaudia delighted with her finding!!!

Still dirty rock, hammer for scale

Many lovely pieces

This one was presented to a friend

One of the smallest

This rich piece has been sold, it`s going to be a part of someone`s collection

How do you like it? :D

Quartz with chlorite inclusions from Dingle

A while ago we went on a family trip to the Dingle Peninsula where, of course, we just HAD TO do some collecting ;) After a while of digging in the upper layer of soil by the cliffs, Klaudia found this little, beautiful quartz crystal with lovely, green inclusions of chlorite. What a treat! And yeah... lucky Klaudia, yhymm ;)

Crystal about 2cm long, chlorite inclusions

Light from behind to show the inclusions

"Flowery" chlorite inclusions in quartz

Found here :)

Lovely views

Cotterites # 2 and 3 :D

Hello everyone.
As you already know, I feel that I have a special relation with the super-rare mineral called Cotterite. It is because it was found in the town where I live, Mallow (Ireland), and because it`s super-rare ;)
Two weeks ago we visited the National Museum in Dublin where we had a chance to see many great specimens (there will be a separate post on it), including Cotterite.
The first one we saw is on display in the Museum of Natural History. It is smaller than the one we saw at UCC, but bigger than the third one (see below).

Cotterite on display in the Museum of Natural History, Dublin

The above photo was taken through glass and therefore is not really good.

Then, thanks to staff members of the National Museum, we were able to see the second Cotterite, which is a part of the UCD collection.

UCD collection Cotterite

UCD collection Cotterite

UCD collection Cotterite

UCD collection Cotterite

UCD collection Cotterite

I`m glad I know the name of Miss Cotter now :)

This way we have now seen three of of only four Cotterites ever found. The fourth one is in Great Britain and this is currently my goal to see it one day, to have my "collection of Cotterites" complete ;)