"Andara Crystal" - SCAM Alert

There are no more "mystical" properties in a chunk of this "Andara Crystal" glass than in a vase on your table, or your car's windshield, your wine glass, or a piece of a broken beer bottle.

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"Bag O'Glass" for $98 sold as Andaran Crystals

This is really sad to read---so many gullible people are being taken advantage of, so I feel compelled to write this.  BEWARE OF "ANDARA CRYSTAL"!

I wrote about pieces of glass being sold as "Obsidian" a few months ago.  Obsidian is natural Volcanic Glass and the colors of natural Obsidian are black, brown, grey, mohogany brown, spotted, and "sheen" varieties.  You can see my blog post HERE.  People are selling chunks of regular man-made glass as "obsidian"----in colors such as red, blue, purple, yellow, green----which aren't colors of actual Obsidian. 

Someone read my Obsidian post and wrote a note to me regarding a very big scam going around involving something being marketed as "Andara Crystal."  My search on Etsy showed 462 results.  My search on Ebay showed 449 results.  The first result on Etsy shows a wire wrapped piece of blue broken glass (an "Andara Crystal") nonsensically described as "... a conduit of the pure 'Blue Ray,'...emanating from the core of the universe, it's [sic] vibration is the holographic stream of the now, limitless as we are" which is on hold for someone---for $198!  RIDICULOUS, weird, and very sad that someone is charging nearly $200 for a wire wrapped piece of regular broken glass--and someone bought it!

WHAT ARE THE CLAIMS ABOUT "ANDARA CRYSTAL"?

Piece of broken glass for about $450!

There are SO many different descriptions of this "Andara Crystal", most of which are completely absurd and poorly written nonsense!  One website claims that the "gifts" brought by "Andara Crystals include:expanding awareness, universal knowledge, channeling ability, spiritual development, bridging ethereal and physical dimensions, raising energy frequencies, clearing the heart chakra," and many more.  And of course this website is selling different colors of "Andara Crystal" glass pieces, and each color possesses different properties!

Another website tells their "story of Andara Crystals" (emphasis mine):

"The Andara crystal is a very special gift from God that holds the energy of unconditional love ... is very rare ... comes from Native American Indian land... I knew there was something magical about this stone the first time I experienced it. I was given the message to have it cut into the sacred geometric shape of the earth. This is known as Metatron’s Cube*..."

*This chunk of glass was cut like a regular 6-sided cube.  Metatron's Cube is actually a dodecahedron seen HERE. I honestly thought they meant "Megatron" when I first read it--makes more sense! LOL!

3" shard of broken glass, $85

Another website tells you how to separate "fake Andara Crystals" from "genuine" ones! Again, emphasis is mine:

"The Andaras ... exist in only in two places; one is in the Sierras on Nellie's property*, the other is in a small sector in South Africa, which are not available as of yet because they are on a high profile diamond mine property with very high security.**

What distinguishes true Andaras from obsidian imitations is that there is always Etherium (prima Matra) present in genuine Andara Crystals. Etherium*** is a very rare combination of over 70 minerals ... The only available source of Etherium in the world is found on Nellie's land where the Andaras are present... True Andaras work with your DNA..."

 *I assumed that this seller lives on "Nellie's land" in the Sierras. But another site states: "Nellie, a half-Choctaw Indian, Medicine Woman and Shaman..." (Never mind that the Choctaw Nation is nowhere near the Sierras.)
**If it's a high-security diamond mine in South Africa, how does this person even KNOW that these "cystals" exist there?  
***Etherium is a completely made-up term.

Lilac "Monatomic" -- NO, it's glass

A TINY 1.5" x 2" piece of lavender or lilac colored glass (sold for about $95!)  is pictured left, and described as follows:

"Andara crystal is a glass-like transmuted mineral complex from this naturally occurring mineral deposit high in monatomic minerals. This natural glass-like mineral complex exhibits extraordinary metaphysical properties."

This is NOT glass-like or a mineral---it is 100% GLASS.  Also, "monatomic" is defined as: "elements that are present in the gaseous state as single atoms. These elements are the noble gasses: He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe and Rn."  Per a chemistry dictionary.

There are more websites that talk about "third hole dimensions" and "Alpha and Omega ancient days" and a "black hole frozen in space-time" and that these crystals are created where "a hyperfield forms a 'no-time' zone, where linear laws of thermodynamics are warped..." and other incredibly ludicrous and inane descriptions of this "Andara Crystal" and its "magical" properties. Word salad!!

$418 for this chunk of broken glass

WHAT ACTUALLY IS ANDARA CRYSTAL?

Shard of clear broken glass

Very simple:  it's a chunk of GLASS.  Man-made glass.  Just plain old everyday GLASS.  As one person on Mindat.org says: "As an experienced glassblower, I can tell you its just cullet glass."  Cullet glass is furnace-ready recycled glass.  There are no crystal structures at all in glass!  No minerals in glass!  There are no more "mystical" properties in a chunk of this "Andara" glass than in a vase on your table, or your car's windshield, your wine glass, or a piece of a broken beer bottle.  Slag is a type of glass that is left over from manufacturing processes---and is being sold as "Andara Crystal" in various colors.  Also, big hunks of broken glass are being sold on Ebay and Etsy for PREMIUM prices because the sellers are claiming this plain ol' glass possesses mystical and magical properties.

If you go to ebay or to etsy and search "Andara crystal" you will see pages and pages of broken shards of glass being sold for LOTS of money by unscrupulous sellers preying on vulnerable buyers. Or click HERE for a google image search of broken glass shards, being shilled as "Andara Crystals". 

HERE is a discussion of this scam on mindat.org, which is a reputable mineralogy website.

This is a very sad case of sellers taking advantage of vulnerable people!!

PLEASE----this is a total SCAM.  Buyers PLEASE beware!!

"Silverite" Update---Is It Sillimanite? One Seller Says So!

White "Silverite" - Sillimanite?

I have written about a gemstone that is almost exclusively sold on Etsy, called "Silverite".  Sellers in India say it's a natural gemstone, and until now, that's all they would say.  I asked some wholesalers about "Silverite" and never got a really straight answer, other than to tell me what it's NOT----I heard it's "definitely NOT sapphire" and "definitely NOT coated".  Yet jewelry designers on Etsy (and elsewhere online) have described it as "coated sapphire", "opalescent quartz", and just a lot of other descriptions that they must have made up, since the actual wholesalers state otherwise.

Anyway, I bought some of this silverite over the past year and had it tested, and every piece that I had tested (from different sellers) turned out to be just glass.  One strand of silverite that I had tested was "coated glass", with some sort of mystic coating on it.

Silverite - Could Be Sillimanite

Tonight I heard from someone who pointed me to a new seller on Etsy who has Silverite.  This person told me that silverite is actually a trade name for "Sillimanite", which is a natural gemstone.  I looked at the listings, and YES, this seller states in the description that this is actually "natural Sillimanite".  HERE is a link to one of their listings.  As of March of 2017, the term "silverite" is not a registered trade name, and no gemologists have even heard of it (except for the ones I contacted about it---they heard of it from me) and it's not written about anywhere--not on mineral websites, the GIA, gemstone forums, nowhere.  The term "silverite" was registered at one point for a coating method, but it's a "dead" trademark and it had nothing to do with a gemstone name anyway. 

I haven't bought any of this new seller's silverite yet, and so I haven't had it tested, so I can't say for sure that this is a natural gemstone.  However, it's interesting to see a wholesaler offering silverite and describing it as Sillimanite.

I hope this is the case!  This seller seems reputable and has other nice gemstones, so hopefully this actually IS a gemstone (Sillimanite)!

Sillimanite is a gem that is closely related to Kyanite and Andalusite.  It's a hard gemstone, and a large amount of Sillimanite has been recently mined in India.  It's considered a collector's gem, and can be quite expensive.  Sometimes, sillimanite is dyed to look like precious rubies, emeralds and sapphires.  HERE is some good info regarding sillimanite.

And once again----no matter what "silverite" is, it is definitely NOT a sapphire, or corrundum; it is not a coated quartz; it is not a pearlescent coated opal, or any other type of precious gemstone.

If I get some of this Silverite, I will test it and let you know!