For the last year, Ive been testing the effects of the sun on a few samples of amethyst. One year not to long ago, I spent nearly three months cutting and shaping an amethyst for my wife. Handing it to her I drop the stone on the floor and the stone broke into several smaller shards.
Setting aside one shard, I placed it out side in direct sunlight for at least one year. Fading of the crystal occurred when left in direct sunlight for that length of time. The dark purple chevron amethyst is no longer dark with white bands, but has turn pale/white to almost clear..
Needless to say.. this theory holds true. One should never place stones in windows or areas of your dwelling that have more then 6 hours of sunlight per day. Remove stones & crystals from store front windows.. and place in shaded or even darken areas with minimal lighting to highlight or illuminate the crystals appearance. Never place extremely hot lamps or very bright lights near your stones as well.
(Note): The harmful rays of the sun, not only weaken the minerals structure, much like that of salt which can force open small cracks and encourage pitting on the surface of the stone or crystal.
Thanks for that, I had no idea that you shouldn't leave your crystals in sunlight, but I suppose it makes sense when you think about it, the sun is a powerful bleacher!
Wow, interesting... And good to know! But do you think this diminishes the effects of crystals or just the appearance?