If you have been following our journey over here at Angela Monaco Jewlery I’m sure you have heard us talk about Herkimer Diamonds a few times (or maybe thousand times).
After years of cherishing these stones and making oh so many pieces of jewelry with them, I’m happy to share a behind the scenes look at where they come from. In the interview below, you can get to know my good friend Adam who actually lives on the mountain in Herkimer County and mines all the Herkimer quartz we use.
I would dare to say that these stones are some of the most precious and ethically sourced gemstones in the world, considering we know the exact hand that grabbed it out of the ground. Adam is a gentle and kind person and always asks permission from the earth before taking these precious gems out of the ground.
I’m very grateful to get to work with these beauties of nature. I hope you all are as excited as I am to learn more about Adam and his amazing trade.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into crystals?
My name is Adam Scanlon, I've been digging herks for 20 years, and it is my life passion.
I was born in Herkimer County, New York, and I started digging because I’m a lover of natural beauty I couldn't help but go collect these sacred treasures. I immediately felt a deep connection to source through the Herkimers and they expedited my personal growth in the right direction. I collect in search of the ones that really are "meant for me" and the rest I just would accumulate. At some point, I decided to sell the ones that I didn't plan to keep in my personal collection, and started to list them on eBay. I was never one to really be enthusiastic about making capital, I was more in search of spiritual wealth. Being able to sustain myself and my kids in a capitalist reality, doing what I love, and doing work I truly believe in has been the greatest blessing that I could ever dream of. It has developed over the last 15 years into being a true servant of the Earth, and I am rewarded for my efforts by being able to support myself and my family by doing the work that my soul believes in, work that I am proud of. Crystals I’ve dug are now all over the world and I've brought that pure energy into a lot of people's lives that would not have the ability to come dig them themselves, so I am deeply grateful and humble to this life destiny that has found me.
Explain what your connection is with the Herkimer diamonds?
My connection to the Herks is a vast subject, but I will say they are perfect and pure, sacred geometric manifestations of our mother Earth, uncorrupted by man’s confusion. To me they are like a reset button and show us our highest potential as divine manifestations.
The Herkimer area to me is like a Chakra of the planet a true energy vortex, I see it as a giant crystal lotus and all the individual Herks are petals of this grand Lotus Flower Vortex. I connect deeply with the original Native tribes way of life, the Mohawk Native Americans. They were the first documented collectors and traders of Herkimers as they knew the land so well and would find them and could see their sacred nature. They would make jewelry and bury their past loved ones with them. They were known as the people of the crystals, and this land they occupied was known to them as the “valley of the crystals” which is now known as the Mohawk Valley. I feel that I work for the Earth, harvesting pure sacred energy and spreading it around the world, helping heal people by showing them such beauty. My connection is so deep that I feel i choose to incarnate here at this time to work with this energy as part of a deeper soul journey, the stones help keep me rooted in my work and steadfast on my sacred path as a healer and a seeker of truth.
Can you explain the healing properties of the Herkimers?
The healing properties of the Herkimers is open to the individual, and should be felt directly. To me it's all about their perfect and pure nature. They are over 500 million years old, and quartz is proven to have the ability to store information. They are like a hard drive for earth record, they have so much information stored on them, if you take the time to feel it and meditate with them.
They produce and can comb out imbalances in the human energy field, this is a big part of their healing capabilities. They have a healing effect whether you are aware or believe in it or not. However, those who are aware and can work with this energy more directly and can have a more profound result. The piezoelectric discharge from the Hekrimers is increased with heat and pressure so holding the stone in your hand putting pressure on it and warming it with your body heat is a great way to synergize and activate the crystal. I see each stone as a living enlightened being. It's just a different kingdom of life, like plants and animals, the crystal kingdom is alive, just a different form of consciousness than we experience as humans. These crystal beings are enlightened, so much so that they literally became the truth, they live far longer than any mammal or plant could ever hope to and they hold their ancient knowledge for an eternity of future discovery.
Why do they call them "diamonds" when they are quartz?
Legend says they are called Herkimer Diamonds because they were “discovered” by general Herkimer during the war times, he thought he had found diamonds in NY and could fund the war with his discovery. However, he soon found out that it was quartz they had discovered - hence the name “Herkimer Diamonds”.
As we know, the natives were harvesting long before this so this is a biased white man perspective, but it’s a part of history. We call them Herkimer Diamonds and most people do now as it dictates the locality “Herkimer County” and the diamond part stands true as they are naturally faceted by earth and resemble the sparkle and luster of a diamond without all the unethical ties to the diamond industry. They are the purest quartz in the world. Double-terminated clear quartz does occur elsewhere but is not the same level of clarity, and Herks are harder on the mohs scale. “Diamond” quartz has become a term for natural double-terminated clear quartz, and Herkimer is the location, so Herkimer Diamond Quartz is the proper full terminology.
Here's a few of our favorite pieces of Herkimer Diamond Jewelry:
