Bismuth

I am fascinated, obsessed, with Bismuth crystals.

I’ve been growing them since 2019, after a friend gave me a crystal as a gift and ignited my interest.

Bismuth crystals are heavy, lustrous, vibrant, and absolutely otherworldly.

They have a deeply satisfying natural geometry, and to this day I’m as mesmerized by it as the first time I held one.

The metal itself, to most, is useless.

It’s brittle, easily melted, diamagnetic - not at all like common steel.

But for that reason, I love bismuth even more.

To me, it means the real purpose of bismuth crystals

is simple beauty.

And if a crystal cracks, or tarnishes, or otherwise loses its luster,

it gets melted down again, rejoins the pool, and grows into part of a new crystal.

I like to give them as gifts, because they’re small, and uncommon, and simply pretty.

But there are some bismuth crystals I won’t give away, or melt down again, no matter how tarnished -

Like the one that started it all.