June 3rd, 2024

Dalle-2, Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Firefly

Although I have no verified evidence to support this, I feel I’ve always been a crystal queen. It’s entirely possible this may not be a real memory I am about to describe, because I asked my sister if it sounded familiar but she told me it did not, but then she also said I have a tendency to remember things like these more often so let’s assume it is real?

Anyway, when we were little kids I remember us picking up little white and sometimes (rarely) pink pebbles off the path on the walk to the car after school, and showing them to our dad and asking what they were called. I’m quite certain those pebbles, tumbled smooth and shiny by the constant rain and wind, were some sort of quartzite. I weirdly have this clear memory of him holding one up and inspecting it; explaining what he thought it was, how it was formed, how it made its way to our town.

I believe this memory is precious to me because I recall how much I loved finding those particularly beautiful pearly pinks and whites amongst the more common boring gray stones and dark green moss. They were little gifts from Mother Nature. I still collect pretty pebbles to this day when I find myself near a river stream or a particular beach.

I originally generated this piece because out of all the beautiful gems I believe my initial appreciation for quartzite, especially those 2-3 pink pebbles I found along the tens of pearly white ones, must have somehow contributed to my adoration of rose quartz and what it signifies; love, in all its forms. Self-love is in my opinion the most important, because to me it automatically translates into love for others and for our environment. I had a compact made with this design as a gift for one of my best friends actually, since I consider her to be so beautiful and always want her to be reminded.

Something that makes me sad about the crystal industry (and the general mining industries, and many others such as tech, fashion, agriculture,…) is the lack of verifiable information regarding the supply chain. There are so many invisible people in the mining industries risking their health, lives and the livelihood of their children (who may also be forced into labor by the same mines as their parents), simply because of the lack of transparency and the normalization of unchecked exploitation.

One hundred percent of the proceeds of the first mint of this NFT will go towards Pact World, an organization working to provide support to the people of the mines, such as those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which is the world’s 4th largest producer of diamonds and its 1st largest producer of cobalt, both of which often occur under extreme human rights violations. Every subsequent sale will be split 50-50 with the seller and the foundation. You must be 18 years or older (or whichever is the legal age in your area) and possess a valid credit card tied to your name, or if purchasing with crypto you automatically attest that you are of legal majority age within your jurisdiction to be making such a transaction.