Todays theme, Gifts
My brother in law is getting a record player for Christmas and above are the albums that I'm gifting him. He's a big Pearl Jam and Black Keys fan so I got those. But I also got some classic rock, Bowie, Stones and I gave him a bunch of the Beatles Duplicates I have. I want to ensure my nephews grow up in a house where the Beatles are present.
So what about you? Images of gifts given or received in the past.
Shout-outs:
thenewgreen, insomniasexx, NotPhil, Aksalon, BlackBird, AlderaanDuran, rezzeJ, b_b, mk, cW, flagamuffin, johnjohnrocks, BlackBird, Hell, dead5, Jeshk0, haymakers9th, demure, Hell, T-Dog, eightbitsamurai, BLOB_CASTLE, Complexity, HedonicTreadmiller Volchek thundara, cgod, kleinbl00, elizabeth, nowaypablo, ThatsAFreeThinker, ecib, khaaan, wasoxygen, ButterflyEffect, fr33lunch, mike, sounds_sound
- EVERY DAY I will post a theme throughout December and it's my hope that we can all participate. Do not feel intimidated if you're not a pro or if you simply have a phone to take pictures with. I'm in the same boat. Past participants (Let me know if you'd like to be removed or added):
Oh, perfect. Y'all can help me out. I didn't take these, but I'm trying to decide which to get. I'm getting a Crystal Ball for my wife for Christmas (It's s'ok, she's not on here and I trust any of you that may know her to keep it zipped). Completely clear glass spheres are cheaper, extremely clear, but aren't made of crystal, so I feel like they make shitty crystal balls by definition. Next step up is reconstituted quartz spheres. Here the quartz is ground to a powder, heated, then formed into a sphere. That's pretty cool, but I sort of feel like if you're using it as some sort of divination tool and you're a witch, that industrial re-processing is at odds with and ruins the natural energy and state of the crystal pulled from the Earth (bear with me, that may be the most ridiculous sentence I've typed and I don't believe in that nonsense AT ALL but hey, -this ain't for me.) Also, I feel like both reconstituted quartz and glass spheres just straight up lack personality. Ok, so that leaves me with natural quartz. Natural quartz is not crystal clear uh...usually, and is full of character or 'flaws' or maybe they are 'aids' to divination. Who knows? They're the most expensive, and in my research, the clearer the natural quartz sphere, the more the price shoots up. They can get crazy expensive. I've narrowed it down to two spheres, each roughly 3.5" in diameter. They are quite different though. The first has an amber tinge and is beautifully bisected by a vein of tourmaline. It is, in my opinion, completely badass:
The second lacks the amber hue and tourmaline vein, and represents the "classic" crystal ball option, for the traditional witch. It still has plenty of character and a lot going on. The obvious "safe" choice. I'm waiting on more pictures from the owner to be sent over, but tell me Hubksi, what do you think? If you were a witch, what crystal ball would you want in your arsenal???
Don't neglect to read up on safety considerations. Crystal balls have been used to record sunshine intensity by burning through cards. Fused quartz spheres created for Gravity Probe B were "the most perfect spheres ever made by humans." But I agree with you, they are bland and personality goes a long way. I vote for the safe choice. That tourmaline inclusion would distract even the best scryer.
I actually saw some forum posts cautioning people not to leave a clear sphere unattended near sunlight, with the insistence that the caution was no joke. I didn't really look into it because the spheres I'm contemplating I feel are cloudy enough to not have that issue. I think. It does have me curious though!
Yes, I noticed that too. I spoke with the seller and she repped it as 3.5, but for the life of me it looks like the classic option is closer to 4. It actually could be, as the owner said that the classic one was mis-priced by her daughter on the website (she lets her upload them to give her something to do) so it's possible that she mis-labled the diameter as well. I guess relevant information is also that the traditional option is less than half the price of the tourmaline one (the seller volunteered that she'd give it for me for the mis-price). Both are within my budget for what I'm willing to pay for a crystal sphere though, so I'm not factoring that in too much. I have been leaning a bit in the classic direction though, just because it's closest to a traditional crystal ball, but has more going on than the glass sphere props we're used to seeing in the movies and such.
I have to disagree. The one with the tourmaline is quite a bit more interesting, IMO. Looks like the kind of thing that you could stare at for a long time and not get bored, like a fire or a tree with no leaves. The chaotic order of creation is more evident in the flawed one.
If I were the warlock in question I would go with the tourmaline sphere I belive. But alas, this is for my witch. Edit: I do feel like if you were a witch though, you could do some cool things where you orient the tourmaline spike in a particular direction that represented various things (a destination, goal, binary choice, etc) and then "feel the vibrations" to let you know if the direction is the correct one. Least that's how I would do it were I a witch.
I love it, what a find. Now run, it's not safe.
Cool photo though, nice to see it's sanctioned.