Have a Heart!

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a special category of Alchemy Stones, namely our "Heart Stones."

A typical Heart Stone in the "original" format.

Although I am generally not a big fan of "seasonal art," we have always gotten many requests for an Alchemy Stone pattern painted on a heart shaped rock,  so I find finally arrived at some kind of compromise back in 2016.

You see, part of the challenge here is that heart-shaped rocks are pretty rare to begin with and to find actual heart-shaped rocks that are smooth enough and suitable to be painted on is pretty much a one-in-a-million proposition.

So when I talk about making a "compromise" of sorts, I started painting heart-related motifs on stones that were vaguely heart-shaped.

The basic format is a hed heart in the center of the stone, with a mandala like pattern built around it.

Even so, these were relatively few and far between and I would always save them up so that they would become available in the Etsy shop in mid-January and if there were any left over (or I found any more) they would be put up for sale in late April ahead of Mother's Day.

A "new" style Heart Stone

In the last couple of years I've relaxed a little bit on my own requirement for stones to be heart-shaped with the introduction of a second style of heart stone. These are basically an oblong stone featuring a pink white and red focused mandala at the wide end and a red heart at the narrow end.

Finding this kind of oval stone is a little bit easier, especially when we go on one of our entire weekend long beachcombing trips.

Even so we have seldom had more than maybe 10-12 heart stones available, because they invariably are the first things to sell when we go to face-to-face events.

In an effort to offer people more options with respect to heart-related stones, I also started painting "Pocket Hearts" in 2018.

Pocket Hearts have gone on to be the single most popular thing in the ever expanding Alchemy Stone universe, and the nice thing is that I am often able to make them in somewhat larger quantities because the patterns are relatively simple, and I am far less strict about how symmetrical and/or flat the stones have to be.

A group of "Pocket Hearts"

Pocket Hearts (as the name might suggest!) are always painted on fairly small stones and they all come in a gift bag with the small Alchemy Stone information pamphlet enclosed. They're entirely hand painted — just like their larger cousins — but just with a simpler design and a smaller size.

You can find all the Heart Stones currently available by visiting the Etsy shop and checking out the Heart Stones category.

Have a wonderful and loving Valentine's Day!