What creates the special star effect in some rose quartz?
Star rose quartz is only found in a few locations in the world. Rose quartz is opaque to translucent microcrystalline quartz of pink to rose-red colour. Some rose quartz contains microscopic rutile crystals which are oriented at right angles to the c-axis of the rose quartz in three directions, each 120 degrees apart. When viewed at a specific angle with a source of light a star-effect is visible. This is known as asterism. What is interesting is that this star formation only appears when the stone is polished in a spherical shape – like the cranium of a crystal skull. The stars come out most dramatically in the natural light of the sun – sometimes with an almost 3D effect that seems to rise up out of the crystal. As with a star sapphire, when these star rose quartz crystal skulls are in direct light (especially bright sunlight), a six-sided star appears on the cranium. This star formation can seem to magically pop up and hover in a 3-d holographic effect that is one of the marvels of
