Clear Quartz Pendant 20mm — Faceted Octagon Silver Necklace

A clear quartz pendant is the small black dress of crystal jewellery. It goes with everything, it never looks dated, and it suits someone who wants the stone without the statement. This one is cut as a faceted octagon, roughly 20 x 9 mm, hung on a sterling silver chain at about 5.5 g all in. The eight sided cut is the reason it has so much life in it, throwing light back from several planes at once instead of glowing softly the way a cabochon would.

People sometimes ask why clear quartz gets called the master healer when it looks, frankly, like glass. The traditional answer is that it isn't valued for a property of its own so much as for amplifying whatever it's paired with, which is why it turns up at the centre of grids and alongside other stones rather than competing with them. Practically, that makes it the most forgiving crystal to own: there's no specific mood or situation it belongs to, so it works as an everyday piece for focus, clarity and intention setting.

A closer look

Quartz has a genuinely remarkable physical property, quite apart from any tradition attached to it. Squeeze a quartz crystal and it generates a tiny electrical voltage, and run a voltage through it and it vibrates at an extraordinarily stable frequency. That is how a quartz watch keeps time, and it's why quartz sits inside radios, phones and computers. The crystal on this chain is chemically the same material doing the same thing. Whether you take that as poetry or just as a good fact, it makes clear quartz the least mystical and most genuinely useful mineral in the cabinet. It's linked traditionally to the crown chakra.

• Stone: Natural clear quartz
• Cut: Faceted octagon
• Size: Approximately 20 x 9 mm, 5.5 g total
• Chain: Sterling silver
• Chakra: Crown
• Clarity: Graded AAAA, no visible inclusions

Wearing your clear quartz pendant

At about 7 on the Mohs scale, this is an easy stone to live with, harder than almost anything it will brush against in a normal day. The chain will want more attention than the pendant does, since sterling darkens gradually in air and a soft polishing cloth brings it straight back. Facet edges are the one place a faceted stone can chip, so store it in a pouch rather than loose in a dish. A wipe with a damp cloth clears the film of skin oil that dulls transparent stones faster than anything else.

Please note: crystals are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Keep small pieces away from young children.