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| Earrings, calcite, sterling silver; Kathleen Faulkner |
Once upon a time, while hiking up in the northern New Mexico mountains, we came upon an old calcite mine. It had been closed for years but the rock was scattered everywhere. The sun, filtering through the trees, and a slight breeze made those rocks sparkle.
I felt like I was in a dream as I sat on the ground picking up pieces of rock. The day, the sun, the smells of pine and pinion and all these beautiful stones sparkling like diamonds..
Calcite comes from the shells of dead marine organisms. That means that at one time, long ago, that area in Northern New Mexico was ocean.
Many things have come from those bones of the dead: cement, limestone, marble, medicines, fertilizer and the most amazing of all: lenses. The now extinct trilobite used clear calcite crystals to form the lenses of their eyes.
All that and more from shells.
Imagine what we haven't discovered yet
what we don't know.
