I Earned My Stripes Among Royalty and Gave Birth to a Gem-Cutting Town

NO GEMSTONE IS more creatively striped by nature than I. At times, I can look like the rings of a tree trunk, eyes, fanciful scallops or even a landscape with trees. I was highly valued as a talisman or amulet in ancient times. And collecting bowls made of my funky chalcedony quartz base were popular among European royalty during the Renaissance. Indeed, such was demand for me that I gave a start to a cutting industry in the small German town of Idar-Oberstein that persists to this day. While once acquired by kings and queens, I am now more likely to be sought out by the kind of shoppers who go to arts and crafts shows.