What Does it Take to Create Our Listings?

Each item on our website, except for our Dragon Tears section, is unique with its own inventory number and description page. While this takes more time, you always know what you are getting. We attribute our high customer satisfaction level to our attention to detail. What you see on the page is what you get. We give individual attention to the details of each piece.

Purchasing

As much as we would like it, new crystals and minerals don't *just* appear on our doorstep! Mary spends a good deal of time researching and sourcing the crystals and minerals that appear on our site. We work with companies and individuals, both domestically and internationally, to find the beautiful and unique pieces we offer. An order can take several weeks to several months to complete, depending on availability and the location it is coming from.

We also attend trade shows and visit dealers' showrooms several times a year, enabling us to hand pick the our offerings! :)

Once the crystals are here they have to be unpacked and inventoried. (Which can make quite a mess, but the cats do love to play in all the paper!) Many times new arrivals are cranky from their trip and need time to rest. We often wash the crystals and spend time clearing their energies. Some pieces may rest here for several weeks or months to a year before they are ready for the site.

Photography

In depth sessions using natural light techniques to showcase what the crystals and minerals will look like under natural sunlight. Mary uses either a Canon G6 or G5 to take the photographs that appear on the site.  Each  piece has at least 2 pictures, while more complex pieces will have many pictures. The average is around 5 pictures per piece. Photographs are taken in hand to help give you a perspective of the size of the piece and are taken from virtually every angle. We know you can't hold and inspect the piece before you buy, so we try to create that feeling for you!  

Cropping

The next stage is to crop the pictures, balance the color, and sharpen the image. Balancing the color adjusts for shifting light patterns, this is usually a very minor change. Sharpening the picture removes some of the  background noise and clarifies the picture. We then crop the image to reduce download time. Below are before and after examples of a picture in the  cropping process.

Before -

After -

Creating the pages

First the pictures are placed on a page and saved with their inventory number. Items are priced and titled and the shopping cart code is programmed. If you've ever received a sneak preview of a page, you've probably seen a page in this preliminary form.  ;-)

Information pertaining to each piece is placed on the page. We measure and weigh the piece, and include any metaphysical information we have.  Sometimes, we'll take a small shortcut, and use similar information for a family of stones. 

Occasionally, a piece will speak to us so loudly, that we will give a mini or full reading of the impressions we receive from the stone.  These readings are not easy and often take a good deal of time and energy.  There are often stones who refuse to let us do a reading for them, and we always honor the wishes of the Spirit when we impart any information we receive from them.

Giving individual readings of the stones is the largest variable in how long it takes us to prepare the page.

Publishing an update!

Once the above steps are completed, the item is ready for its website debut! Each item is linked to its appropriate category page via a thumbnail image of the crystal. We link each updated page to our "Updates of New Stock" page for a convenient listing of our updates. Once all the categories are completed the updates are published and pages are checked for errors.

Throughout this entire process, the crystals and stones have received loads of love and Reiki energy.  Once we've published the update, the stones are ready to go to their new Guardians!