Quick Specs
- Material: Quartz and black rutile (sold as a mix)
- Quantity: 1 lb lot of tumbled chips
- Chip Size: 5-8mm (about 0.2 to 0.3 inches)
- Finish: Tumbled
- Color: Clear, milky white and black, with a few brown and olive chips
- Mohs Hardness: Quartz 7; rutile 6 to 6.5
Quartz and Black Rutile: Clear Chips With Dark Threads
Quartz is silicon dioxide, the second most common mineral group in the Earth’s crust, rated 7 on the Mohs scale, and it has no cleavage, so a piece breaks along curved, shell-like surfaces and tumbles into smooth, rounded chips. Rutile is a mineral composed mainly of titanium dioxide, with a hardness of 6 to 6.5 and a bright, adamantine to metallic luster. Rutile often grows as slender needles through quartz, and GIA notes that these needles give the variety called rutilated quartz its name. The needles are most often golden, but they can also be silver, copper-red or black, and in clear quartz they look like fine hairs caught in glass. This lot combines tumbled quartz chips with dark pieces, sold together as quartz and black rutile. Tumbling has rounded the edges and smoothed the surfaces, and the chips run in size from about a split pea to a whole pea.
Most of the chips are water-clear or milky white quartz, some with cloudy patches or fine cracks. Mixed through them are glossy black chips, dark grey ones and a handful of brown and olive-yellow pieces, and several of the clear chips carry thin dark lines running through them. Each chip is its own small piece, and no two share a shape. At 5 to 8mm they are small enough to pour from a hand into a dish, and large enough to pick out one by one. The contrast between clear and black reads well even from across a room, which suits a bowl on a shelf or a jar on a desk. A pound is enough to fill a small bowl, and the chips settle together in loose, glittering layers. Held to a window, the clear chips pass light through, and the milky ones glow softly, and the black chips stay dark.
Practical Ritual Applications
Pour the chips into a shallow bowl and set it on your altar or reading table, where the clear stones catch candlelight and the dark ones give the pile some depth. A handful scattered in a ring around a candle in a holder, or laid in a spiral on a cloth, makes a simple grid without needing large stones. Fill a small jar for a desk, or tuck a pinch into the pouch where you keep your Tarot deck. A thin scatter on a mirror or a dark tray makes a bright base for a candle in a holder. For more small pieces to mix in, browse my stone and crystal chips collection.
How to Work With Quartz and Black Rutile Chips
Three steps for sorting a pound of chips and putting them to use.
- Sort Under a Lamp
Spread a handful of chips on a sheet of white paper under a bright lamp, and look through the clear ones for fine dark threads. A small magnifier helps. Sort the chips into three dishes: clear and milky, threaded, and black. The threaded chips make good centerpieces for a bowl or a grid, and sorting once means you choose by sight afterward.
- Fill a Bowl or Jar in Layers
Pour a layer of clear chips into a clean glass bowl or jar, add a layer of black, then another of clear, and finish with a few threaded pieces on top. The layers show through the glass from the side, so you can see the pattern without moving the chips. Keep the container on a shelf or an altar where it will stay put, and refill it whenever you want a fresh look.
- Carry a Pinch
Fill a small cloth pouch with a pinch of chips, a few of each kind, and keep it in a pocket or with your deck. Choose a pouch with a tight drawstring, since the chips are small enough to slip through a loose weave. Chips are small parts, so keep the pouch and the bowls out of reach of young children and pets. Refresh the mix whenever you want a different balance of clear and dark.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock this lot for people who want quartz in small pieces, sold by the pound, with dark chips mixed in for contrast. At 5 to 8mm the chips fill a bowl, ring a candle or sit in a jar without crowding a small shelf, and a full pound lets you keep some for yourself and share the rest. At hardness 7, quartz chips hold up well to handling, and a mixed pound lets you build a bowl or a jar to your own taste. For more stones sold by the pound, browse my bulk tumbled stones collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Rutile is a mineral made mainly of titanium dioxide, and it commonly grows as thin needles inside quartz. GIA notes that these needle inclusions give the variety rutilated quartz its name. The needles are most often golden, though they can be silver, copper-red or black, and they may sit scattered or in bundles. Other names for the effect include Venus hair and flèches d'amour, meaning arrows of love.
Use warm soapy water and a soft brush, avoid household chemicals, and dry the chips afterward. Quartz is hard, at 7 on the Mohs scale, but gemstones harder than it can scratch it, so store the chips in a fabric-lined box or wrapped in a soft cloth. Quartz has no cleavage, so a hard knock leaves curved, shell-like chips.
Crystal guides link quartz with the crown chakra, the seventh center in the modern chakra system. One guide calls quartz the master amplifier. These are crystal-practice associations, so treat them as themes for reflection.
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