A small library

The Materials

Twenty-one stones. Each chosen by mo. Each with its own character.

This page exists because every SENMOMO piece is made from the same library — and mo wants you to know what she's working with. There are commercial crystal suppliers who carry hundreds of varieties. We carry twenty-one. We chose each for a reason, and we hold each to a standard.

If you spend a few minutes here, you'll know what we know about each stone — what to look for, what to avoid, what it pairs with. This is the SENMOMO alphabet. Every piece is a word made from these letters.

— mo ✍

Rose Quartz

Warm

Silicon dioxide variety

This is the stone I pick most often when someone writes to me about a mother. The pink is warm without being sweet — there are five or six shades you'll find in a kilogram of raw rose quartz, and I save the ones whose pink is closest to the inside of a peach.

Light passes through good rose quartz the way it passes through linen. I avoid the rose quartz that looks like pastel candy. Cheap supplier rose quartz tends to be evenly opaque, dyed pink. The real stone has small clouds inside it — those clouds are the proof.

Pairs well with
Strawberry Quartz Moonstone Pink Opal Mother of Pearl
In pieces
Her Tenderness · #042

Strawberry Quartz

Warm

Silicon dioxide with hematite or goethite inclusions

Strawberry quartz is rose quartz's louder cousin. The pink-red comes from tiny crystals of hematite trapped inside the stone, which means each piece is mottled, never uniform.

I use it when something needs warmth but the wearer wouldn't choose pink for herself. It plays well with rose quartz because the two stones have the same temperature but different volumes. Together they read as one color seen in two lights.

Pairs well with
Rose Quartz Sunstone Carnelian Moonstone
In pieces
Her Tenderness · #042

Pink Opal

Warm

Hydrated silica, Andean variety

A softer pink than rose quartz, and more opaque. Pink opal feels like cloth — it has a kind of patience to it, like a person who waits to be asked twice.

I use it when a piece needs gentleness without being soft-spoken. The best pink opal comes from Peru — the Andean variety. Avoid synthetic; cheap pink opal is glass dyed pink, and you can tell because it looks like candy. Real pink opal has small dimples and tiny veins.

Pairs well with
Mother of Pearl Rose Quartz Moonstone
In pieces
Dear You · #127

Sunstone

Warm

Oligoclase feldspar with copper or hematite inclusions

The orange in sunstone comes from tiny mineral inclusions that catch light and scatter it. Turn a good sunstone bead in the morning sun and it looks like it's lit from inside.

This is a stone for warmth without sentimentality. I pair it with citrine for the first day of spring, with carnelian for autumn, with smoky quartz for someone steady.

Pairs well with
Citrine Carnelian Smoky Quartz Moonstone
In pieces
First Light · #103

Citrine

Warm

Yellow quartz, silicon dioxide colored by iron impurities

Most "citrine" on the market is heat-treated amethyst, which gives an orange-red color that's a little harsh. I use natural citrine, the gentler yellow, like wheat in late summer light.

It's harder to find and more expensive, but the difference is visible the moment you hold the stone. Citrine is the morning stone. Worn alone, it brightens. Worn with darker stones, it warms them.

Pairs well with
Sunstone Smoky Quartz Black Tourmaline Aquamarine
In pieces
First Light · #103

Carnelian

Warm

Reddish-orange chalcedony, silicon dioxide variety

Carnelian has been worn for at least four thousand years — there are carnelian beads in the British Museum from Mesopotamia. The color is autumn — red-orange like rust on iron in good light.

I use carnelian when a wearer asks for "strength without softness." The best carnelian is naturally colored, not dyed. You can tell because dyed carnelian shows seams along the bead's drill hole where the dye didn't fully penetrate.

Pairs well with
Sunstone Smoky Quartz Black Tourmaline
In pieces
— for a future piece —

Amethyst

Cool

Purple quartz, silicon dioxide colored by iron and natural irradiation

The purple in amethyst is unlike any synthetic purple. Real amethyst has small variations of color through one stone — sometimes paler near the top, deeper at the base.

Cheap amethyst is dyed to be uniformly purple, and it looks plasticky. I use amethyst for quiet. It's a stone for the hour between things — the late afternoon, the moment before bed, the pause before a decision.

Pairs well with
Smoky Quartz Moonstone White Howlite Aquamarine
In pieces
Twilight Hour · #089

Aquamarine

Cool

Light blue-green beryl, beryllium aluminum silicate

Aquamarine is the color of seawater near a beach, in good light. The color is subtle — too subtle for most photographs to capture, which is partly why I love it.

You have to wear it to see what it really looks like. This is the stone for transitions. The water is moving, but not roughly. I pair aquamarine with moonstone when something is about to change but hasn't named itself yet.

Pairs well with
Moonstone Pearl White Howlite Citrine
In pieces
April Rain · #018

Lapis Lazuli

Cool

Lazurite with pyrite and calcite inclusions

True lapis is the blue of an unblinking deep — like a night sky photographed from a desert. The pyrite inclusions look like small stars.

Avoid lapis that's too perfectly blue; that's likely dyed howlite or glass. This is the stone of thought. The ancient Egyptians used it to grind into ink. I use it for wearers who work with words, or whose lives turn on quiet decisions made alone.

Pairs well with
White Howlite Moonstone Smoky Quartz
In pieces
The Reader · #055

Green Aventurine

Cool

Quartz with fuchsite mica inclusions

The green of aventurine is the green of new spring growth — not too dark, not too saturated. Sunlight catches the small mica flakes inside the stone and turns it into something that glitters quietly. Like dew.

I use this for people who do their best thinking outdoors. It's also a beginner's stone — gentle, forgiving, easy to wear with most things.

Pairs well with
Jade Pearl Smoky Quartz Citrine
In pieces
Field Notes · #063

Jade

Cool

Jadeite or nephrite — two distinct mineral species both called "jade"

A stone with deep cultural weight in China — it's been carved here for at least seven thousand years.

I source mine from Xinjiang, where the green has a slightly grey undertone that I find more honest than the bright green you see in tourist jewelry. Jade is the green that comes through bone. I pair it with green aventurine when a piece needs both the new green and the old.

Pairs well with
Green Aventurine Pearl Mother of Pearl
In pieces
Field Notes · #063

Moonstone

Neutral

Orthoclase feldspar with adularescent sheen

Moonstone is my most-used stone. The blue-white sheen — adularescence, mineralogists call it — appears only when light hits the stone at certain angles. Wear moonstone in the morning and it changes by the afternoon.

I use moonstone when a piece needs a heartbeat. Often only one moonstone bead, hidden among others. It's the secret of half my designs.

Pairs well with
Pearl Aquamarine Rose Quartz Lapis Lazuli
In pieces
Her Tenderness · #042 · April Rain · #018 · Slow Sunday · #091

Freshwater Pearl

Neutral

Biogenic — calcium carbonate (aragonite) formed in freshwater mussels

I prefer freshwater pearls to saltwater for our work — they're more affordable, more varied in shape, and they catch light differently. Each pearl has tiny ridges and slight asymmetries that prove it came from a living animal.

I use pearls when something needs to soften light without being feminine in a delicate way. Pearl is also a stone of restraint — it doesn't try to be brighter than the moment.

Pairs well with
Moonstone Mother of Pearl Jade Rose Quartz
In pieces
Slow Sunday · #091

Mother of Pearl

Neutral

Nacre — biogenic calcium carbonate from mollusk shell linings

Mother of pearl is the inside of a shell — the iridescent layer that pearls grow from. When you turn a mother of pearl bead, it shifts color across pink, blue, and green, like an oil slick on water.

I use this when a piece needs to listen. Mother of pearl iridesces in three directions — the way a face does when it's paying attention.

Pairs well with
Pearl Pink Opal Jade Moonstone
In pieces
Dear You · #127

White Howlite

Neutral

Calcium borosilicate hydroxide

White howlite is a quieter stone than it looks. The grey veining gives each bead a different pattern — like marble at small scale.

I use howlite as a pause between other stones. It's white but never bright; matte, almost chalk-like in finish. Sometimes a piece needs an interval, and howlite is that interval.

Pairs well with
Lapis Lazuli Black Tourmaline Amethyst Pearl
In pieces
The Reader · #055

Smoky Quartz

Neutral

Brown to grey quartz, silicon dioxide colored by natural irradiation

Smoky quartz is what happens when natural radiation turns ordinary clear quartz brown over geological time. Each stone is a slow archive of the place it came from.

I use it for grounding. It's the stone you reach for when the day has been too much and you need to come back to your body. I pair it with amethyst for the last hour of the day.

Pairs well with
Amethyst Black Tourmaline Onyx Citrine
In pieces
Twilight Hour · #089

Black Tourmaline

Neutral

Schorl — complex iron-bearing silicate

Black tourmaline is structurally different from most "black" stones — under magnification you can see the deep striations along the crystal's length.

It's the stone I reach for when a piece is for someone who has had to defend themselves. Not a sweet stone. Not delicate. But not loud either — true black tourmaline is matte-black, not glossy. Glossy black usually means dyed onyx or glass.

Pairs well with
Onyx Smoky Quartz Carnelian Moonstone
In pieces
Quiet Strength · #077

Onyx

Neutral

Black banded chalcedony — silicon dioxide variety

Onyx looks like solidified shadow. It's a stone of resolve — wears like ink. I use onyx underneath other stones, as the anchor.

The best onyx is naturally black. Dyed onyx is sold as "black agate" sometimes — same mineral, different process, different feel. Naturally black onyx has a depth that dyed stones don't reach.

Pairs well with
Black Tourmaline Smoky Quartz Pearl
In pieces
Quiet Strength · #077

14K Gold

Accent

Gold-copper-silver alloy, 58.3% gold

I use 14K gold spacers — small (4mm) accent beads placed between stones. 14K is the right balance for jewelry that's worn often: harder than 18K, gentler than 10K.

The color is warmer than white gold without going orange. A single gold spacer in a bracelet of cool-toned stones changes the temperature of the whole piece.

Pairs well with
Cool stones Amethyst Aquamarine Lapis Lazuli
Used in
Selected pieces by mo's choice

925 Silver

Accent

Sterling silver alloy — 92.5% silver, 7.5% copper

The standard for fine jewelry. I use 925 silver for clasps and small spacers. Each clasp is engraved with the SENMOMO studio mark — a small mark you'll need to look closely to see.

925 silver tarnishes slightly over years; this is normal and gives the metal its patina. Wipe it with a soft cloth occasionally. The clasp is meant to age with you.

Pairs well with
Any stone Cool stones especially
Used in
Clasps on every SENMOMO piece

Rose Gold

Accent

Copper-rich gold alloy — ~75% gold, 25% copper

Rose gold is gold with a higher copper content — the same metal as 14K yellow gold, but the alloy ratio shifts the color toward pink.

I use rose gold spacers when a piece is primarily pink-toned (rose quartz, strawberry quartz, pink opal) and wants its accents to disappear into the warmth.

Pairs well with
Rose Quartz Strawberry Quartz Pink Opal
Used in
Selected feminine pieces by mo's choice

Twenty-one is enough.

Most crystal jewelry brands carry hundreds of stones, in dozens of qualities. We carry twenty-one, all hand-selected to a single standard. Restraint is a kind of clarity. mo would rather know her stones well than guess at thousands.

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