GMS Field Trip

GMS Field Trip
Quartz Crystals in Georgia
Saturday, November 3, 2018

A beautiful sunny day greeted juniors as they prepared to dig for beautiful quartz crystals. It didn’t take long before several crystals were roused from their sleepy little Georgia clay beds. One of the first crystals out had a chevron pattern indicating multiple growth over an existing crystal. This form of quartz is often called a “phantom”. Many of the other crystals juniors found were very clear, and are considered a variety of quartz called “rock crystal”. At least two specimens I saw were twins where the crystals formed at 90 degrees to each other. There were also several clusters.

As a special treat, John Koontz, also known as the “Star Carver” and his apprentice Kaylynn, joined in on the trip and carved images into the quartz that the juniors just dug up. They chose clear crystals to work with and carved a horse head, some hummingbirds, a cat head, a musical note, and even a rattle snake! They used diamond tipped tools in an art called “intaglio” (pronounced “in-TAH-lee-oh”), where the image is carved in 3D on the back of the crystal and viewed through the crystal from the front.

It was an absolutely awesome juniors’ trip and we can’t thank the property owners as well as John and Kaylynn enough for their tremendous generosity. Many thanks to Harry Vas Dias for making this trip possible and to Charles Carter for arranging the trip. And a quick shout out to Susan for the best brownies too!

Lori Carter
On behalf of Charles Carter, GMS Field Trip Chair
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