Citrine

Natural citrine is exceptionally rare. Most of what circulates in the market is amethyst, heated to around 300°C to oxidize its iron ions and turn the stone yellow. Heat changes the color quickly. We look for the minority of stones that took their time to color in the ground. These natural specimens come from Brazil, Madagascar, and Spain. Near Salamanca, mining has continued since the Middle Ages. The name derives from the French ""citron,"" but the natural color is quieter than a lemon. It looks more like light passing through honey. Medieval European merchants kept the stone in their safes as a talisman. Heat treatment can easily replicate the yellow hue, but it cannot copy the traces left by deep geological time. We keep our citrine natural to present the mineral exactly as it is.

His standards are set so high that his own results never quite meet them. That's not a lack of ability — it's an excess of rigour turned inward. I chose this stone as a small recalibration. It's all right to accept what you've built. Achievement belongs to the person who did the work, and the hand should be open to receive it.