Natural Creations LLC

Some minerals are beautiful. Others rewrite your expectations of what’s possible. This one does both.

🤯😬🔥🔥🔥😳😳😳🤯

If you know Pakistani minerals well, then you’ve probably been offered quite a few aquamarines in your lifetime. 🤦‍♂️😂😩 I can definitely relate, even though I probably only purchase one out of every thousand.

My entire career I’ve chased perfection at the highest level. This piece goes beyond that… it elevates.

To start, the quartz is alpine quality, and that’s not even the best part. It contains a ghost phantom inside that is shaped like a beryl crystal. 👻

I honestly wish I understood how that’s even possible. Has anyone else ever seen a quartz phantom in the shape of a beryl crystal?

Next, the aquamarine color is literally neon blue.

If you Google “aquamarine,” the untrained eye would assume they’re all this color, but unfortunately much of what people see online has been color enhanced or heavily edited. That’s exactly why I never trust photos alone before purchasing a mineral.

Finally, the aesthetic and composition of this piece are overwhelming. What are the odds that Mother Nature produced another specimen quite like it?

The answer is simple: zero… until now! 😂🤣

It’s important when collecting minerals that we never sacrifice quality for size or quantity. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🔥❤️❤️

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Video: .kickrocks
Cover photo:

🧐 So I noticed some of you wanting to see the 🍉“Watermelon Tourmaline”🍉 in the comments of the “Green Steel” post so I decided to give the people what they want!!! 😂 🙌
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The Bi-color Steel Pocket is a legendary pocket that was discovered at the Pederneira mine. I have been fortunate enough to have been able to sell two of the best pieces, and a bunch of single crystals. This Bi-color star is one of them, and the piece in this video. This piece is spectacular, it’s so delicate, yet has such a breathtaking presence. It’s double terminated, un-repaired, watermelon on one side and flawless blue on the other, it has a beautiful quartz stuck to it with lepidolite.

This piece is for sure one of the more refined objects from the mine, I hope you guys enjoy this piece as much as I do!
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Elbaite with smokey quartz and lepidolite
13cm
From the Pederneira mine
Referance: Pezzotta et al. (2015)
Thumbnail Photo -
#🔥

It’s hard to explain to newer collectors just how common Illinois fluorite once was. 😳💜

When I first started attending local Midwest shows, tables would be covered in it. Dealers had flats of fluorite stacked everywhere, and most people walked right past them chasing something more exotic. Nobody could have imagined what would happen over the next two decades.

Today, the finest examples from the Minerva District in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois have become some of the most celebrated fluorites on Earth. The combination of deep purple color, electric blue zoning, sharp crystal geometry, and incredible transparency is something that few localities have ever been able to rival.

This particular scepter fluorite reminds me exactly why Illinois material became legendary. The color is rich, the aesthetics are balanced, and perhaps most importantly: ZERO epoxy, ZERO repairs, ZERO restoration. Just a natural crystal preserved exactly as it came from the earth. 💎✨

One of the interesting things about fluorite is that many people underestimate how fragile it really is. It cleaves easily and can be extremely difficult to extract, transport, and preserve. Because of that, finding top-quality specimens in completely original condition becomes harder every year.

The closure of the Illinois mines in the 1990s effectively ended one of the greatest fluorite-producing chapters in mineral collecting history. No new material is coming. The supply is finite, and the best examples have steadily disappeared into advanced collections around the world.

I’ve always believed fluorite is one of the most important minerals for any collector to study. It comes in an endless variety of colors, habits, and localities, but Illinois fluorite will forever remain one of the standards by which all others are measured.

Very grateful to be the caretaker of this beautiful piece and excited to share it with all of you. ❤️🙏🏻

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Video: .kickrocks
Cover Photo:

In September 2019 wrote an amazing article about the Golconda mine, where this exquisite crystal came from. I highly recommend reading it if you can. This exceedingly rare prismatic morganite crystal is quite the specimen checking in at 38cm tall and weighing over 30lbs! 😳

🧠Many questions overwhelm the mind: you ask, how is this possible? Why haven’t other morganites been found that are like this? The answer is simple: things can’t always be explained, sometimes you just need to celebrate their existence❤️😊! This crystal is not only enormous, but displays many of the attractive features of smaller, tabular morganite crystals. It rests on a beautiful white Cleavelandite matrix and has a glassy termination along with its striking color. In a display case this specimen takes light so well you could see it a mile away. And there are hundreds of enhydro 🫧bubbles🫧 throughout its length! In my life I have seen only two other elongated morganites of quality - but nothing comes close to this beauty.

Beryls have always been an important part of my passion for collecting, and have been a staple in the private collections I build and curate. Although there seems to be billions of aquamarines that come from Pakistan, there are only two aquamarines of size that posses the qualities of this one.

This aquamarine is internally flawless, and for the size is impossible to find. However what really makes this piece an 11, is it’s color, the saturation on it is insane. It has very unique etchings down the sides of the crystal, and posses luster that is seldom found “naturally” 😂 on crystals!

The only other single aquamarine crystal of real size I have seen that even remotely compares is the very famous and as well know Joseph Freilich Aquamarine. I owned it for 4 years and unfortunately sold it to a dear friend. It is easy to find for it has been published many times. After selling the Freilich aquamarine I immediately regretted it… so I began hounding Marcus to sell me the only other comparable. After many years of back and forth I finally was able to acquire this ridiculous aquamarine. I left the iron stain on it because I love that it has not been through a lab, not that it needs it. 💯🙏🤯🥰
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Aquamarine beryl, 14.5 cm, from the Shigar Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
Will Johnson collection
References: Peters et al. (1985); Blauwet (2004).
Video:

Medinas are arguably the most magical aquamarines on Earth. There were 16 crystals of note found in this pocket in the 1990s, and of those 16 crystals, I’ve been fortunate enough to have handled most of them 🔮❤️🙏🏻.

I’m not a provenance guy at all. In my eyes, it adds zero value to a rock whatsoever. That being said, the lineage of this crystal included Wayne, Gene, Horner, Danny... and now it has been in the TERRA Collection for over two years 🙂❤️.

A lot of people try to devalue the progression I bring to mineral collecting by focusing on the roles others played in my acquisitions. At the end of the day, what matters most is who owns an object or who curates it. When you deal in objects that have no comparables, the value is whatever the owner puts on it. This only exists at the highest level of collecting.

This is by far the most valuable Medina ever found, and certainly the most valuable single gem aquamarine on Earth. It also has a digital termination like my other one, except it is bigger!

Not much needs to be said about this piece. Just seeing it or holding it makes you a hero. If you’re lucky enough to own it, that’s another story.

Enjoy your weekend, friends 🙂🥂

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Video: .kickrocks

As most of you guys know, we just did our first exhibition of “TERRA” in Nanjing, China. The response was insane 🤯🤯🤯❤️🙏🏻!

As I have expressed, the exhibition will be at other venues throughout the world. It will also include many more minerals that my partner and I chose not to bring. Excited to see the reactions in other locations 🙂.

I also just wanted to thank Jeff, my videographer, who literally spent probably a month filming this video. It’s not easy to make rocks look good on video—pictures are much different. Most pictures of rocks on the internet look nothing like the rocks themselves.

Our mission with this page is to inspire and educate the world. Video is much different—you get what you get, which is why setting up lights takes so much time and dedication to get the right shot.

Jeff, you are a brother, and without your artistry, this page would not exist.

If you want to learn more about this collection, please DM me. I’m open to inquiries; however, we are still in the exhibition phase of this project.

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Video: .kickrocks

The “TERRA” Collection represents the four elemental forces: earth, fire, air, and water.

Many people have asked me how a project like this came to be, and how it was even possible. The answer is manifestation at the highest level, combined with a shared vision between one of my dear friends, Evan Yurman, and myself.

Evan came to me years ago at the Tucson Gem Show. He was incredibly passionate about minerals and about searching out the finest stones for his jewelry brand, David Yurman. As our friendship grew and I shared my dreams with him, we realized we had much more in common than we initially thought. Not only did he understand my vision, he helped turn it into a reality, and together it grew into something I never thought would be possible.

We created “TERRA” to raise awareness and help build a global market at the highest level of mineral perfection. Minerals are, in my opinion, the rarest collectible on Earth, especially at this level of quality. Born half a billion years ago, they will hopefully endure for another billion years. Though the mineral market has expanded steadily over the past 200 years, it has done so slowly because of the extraordinary scarcity of these objects.

Evan collects many things, as do I, but nothing compares to minerals. They are truly one-of-a-kind objects that display beauty in endless variety. Throughout this journey with my friend, I have learned a great deal and have often been deeply inspired. Ours is a growing market, but one whose standards are not always clearly defined. Our hope is that “TERRA” can serve as a lasting tool to educate, inspire, and elevate the appreciation of these natural masterpieces.

Thank you to all the people from around the world who traveled to see this exhibition. The turnout was overwhelming, and the long lines were completely unexpected. We deeply appreciate the patience of everyone who waited to experience the collection ❤️🙏🏻.

The question now is where the collection will be exhibited next before it is ultimately sold. I pray that its future owner chooses to display it publicly so others may continue to enjoy and learn from it.

A very special thank you to my friend Evan for believing in me and helping me see a bigger picture. And thank you to my family and loved ones, who have endured the overwhelming amount of work, travel, and sacrifice required to create something of this nature. None of this would have been possible without your support.❤️

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Video By: .kickrocks