Today I found out that beloved artifiziell's account has been deactivated. I wanted to share some of the art she shared with me that she never posted because I honestly think they're worth sharing with everyone.
Albite and Orthoclase unfinished regenerations. She was unsure of which pick was the best.
A discarded regeneration for Moonstone because the braid would obscure the back eyes.
Moonstone (unfinished) regeneration. She thought that something felt missing and she mentioned how she wasn't sure Mona fans would like her.
Concept art of her gem comic
I don't have her permission to post these, obviously. But since her entire blog is gone now, I wanted to share her art before it's too late. Sorry.
Edit: I DID NOT DRAW THIS. THIS IS ARTIFIZIELL'S ART
Rainbow Lattice Sunstone is a beautiful occurrence... that isn't actually a type of sunstone.
When Orthoclase mixes with Hematite and Magnetite, this beautiful pattern is created:
Rainbow Lattice Sunstone, that I will be abbreviating to RLS for my own sake, is a type of Orthoclase Feldspar with specific inclusions of Hematite and Magnetite.
Feldspar is a mineral group that classifies any mineral containing aluminum tectosilicate, plus a cation such as calcium, potassium, or sodium. In the case of orthoclase, it's potassium.
Orthoclase has the chemical formula KAlSi3O8. It is a specific feldspar mineral that makes up most of igneous rocks.
Sunstone is a real mineral and also a type of feldspar, but has a slightly different formula to orthoclase that differentiates the two. The reason RLS is called Sunstone is not because of its chemical properties, but because of its sunray-like appearance.
Orthoclase feldspar makes up the base of RLS. The namesake, rainbow lattice, comes from its two inclusions.
What is an inclusion anyways..?
This is a smaller piece of another mineral, or sometimes organic matter, that is trapped inside a larger sample of a mineral. This picture of RLS is a great visual for that concept.
Hematite is those little orange inclusions that sort of look like bubbles. If you have seen larger hematite samples before, this may surprise you, because it usually looks black, pictured below.
Hematite actually has a red-orange streak, meaning when scratched on a metal or porcelain plate, it leaves behind that orange color residue. It forms in hexagonal shapes, so those little inclusions are actually very messy six-sided face.
On the other hand, Magnetite is the perfect, black triangles. Magnetite is a great mineral that deserves its own entry, but it often forms in these triangular shapes that don't even look real.
These two inclusions together form a lattice that, at certain angles, results in the iridescent rainbow patterns. It's truly a magnificent sight!!
Ethically...
RLS is found in Australia, in Eastern Arrernte, which is Aboriginal land. Asterism Gems is the company that mines and sells these minerals claim they work in harmony with the Easter Arrernte people and are determined to learning about and respecting their culture. As far as I can research, Asterism Gems is the only company using RLS commercially.
RLS is the banner for this blog. It was one of the first mineral samples that I researched in full and really fell in love with it. It has such amazing properties and I especially love the close up image of its inclusions.
Your whole rock collection is a slay. Show me some funky pieces you haven't been asked about yet!!!!
Here’s a rock I’ve been dying to talk about! This little guy is orthoclase feldspar! You might be familiar with the feldspar family, as it contains gemstones such as sunstone, moonstone, labradorite, and amazonite. What’s really, really interesting about this piece of feldspar is its shape. This cool formation is called a Carlsbad Twin. Let me tell you about it!
Feldspar crystals often form as flat-topped, six-sided prisms which are strongly skewed sideways. Here’s an example of another feldspar in my collection, amazonite, which shows off this crystal habit really clearly!
The two crystals in my piece of orthoclase are making that common feldspar shape! But you’ve probably also noticed how they appear to be mirror images of each other, and also growing through each other.
That’s Carlsbad twinning!! It’s a type of penetration twinning, which means the crystals appear to be penetrating or passing through each other. But looks can be deceiving; what's ACTUALLY happening here is much cooler. These crystals are conjoined twins! One hasn’t penetrated the other; they’re actually sharing some of their molecules like human conjoined twins might share organs.
This can happen because of the shape of feldspar’s crystal lattice - the orderly arrangement of its molecules.
The crystal lattice won't match up perfectly throughout the entire structure, but it WILL match up right along the C axis, where we flipped it. Along this line the grid of molecules aligns, and our twin crystals can share them. The place where lattice points are shared is called the composition surface.
Simply put, molecules don’t know what shape they’re making on a macro level. The shapes they make are by complete accident, because that just happens to be what shape you get when you arrange molecules in that kind of grid. The only thing the molecules know is how they can connect to other molecules. It doesn’t matter to them which direction the crystal is growing in, or which direction the crystal lattice is facing. If they can connect up in a way that completely flips the crystal lattice, well... they don't know they're doing that! They're just doing what molecules do!
I forgot to post this here, but I finished this a while ago
More lesbian gems hehehe
Also they have a fused form named Unakite
A bit of lore
Epidote and Orthoclase are both quite old gems. They were both born in a period of relative stagnancy in the cliff, and thus were raised at pretty much the same time. Since birth they have been inseparable from one another, and they do everything together. Patrol, sleep, forage and hibernate. They are perfect foils to each other, yet their bond is unbreakable. Where Epidote is shy and reserved, Orthoclase is outgoing and cheerful. Yet, it is this very bond that worries Sensei, as he fears that the capture of one of them would completely incapacitate the other...
You ever do anthropomorphized fanart of feldspar minerals?
YEAH ME NEITHER HA HA
(originally from 2015, I believe)
I'm going through some old hard drives! Time for Museum Posting! But slowly…
This image is from a series where I drew …most?? Of the Feldspars for a gallery show. No idea where the original paintings ended up, but happy to have found the scans!
A potassium feldspar mineral, orthoclase has the chemical formula KAlSi3O8 and is also known as K-feldspar or K-spar. It is a common mineral found in most granites and other igneous rocks. Because of this it had several commercial uses, including in tiles and dinnerware among other ceramics. As a raw material it can be used in the production of porcelain and glass.
Often translucent, orthoclase can range in color from white to brown to yellow to pink, among other varieties. It has a Mohs hardness of 6, and is actually one of the minerals used to define the Mohs scale. Orthoclase can be found across the globe and has also been found on the Moon and Mars. It crystalizes in the monoclinic system.
For more in depth information about orthoclase, check out what mindat.org, webmineral.com, minerals.net, and mineralatlas.eu have to say about it.
