How We Source Our Crystals

A slower, more conscious approach to crystal sourcing

Moon & Earth grew from a question I couldn't find a good enough answer to:

Where has this crystal really come from?

Crystals had already been part of my professional practice as a Reiki practitioner and within the wellbeing and mindfulness work I was offering in 2021. I was using them within my own practice and with others and as I began sourcing more pieces, I found myself wanting to know more about what I was actually buying.

Were they genuine? Where had they been mined? Who had been involved in bringing them from the Earth to me? Could the person selling them tell me anything about their journey?

Too often, I couldn't get the answers I was looking for.

So I started looking for people who could answer those questions.

I sought out suppliers who knew where their material came from, who had relationships with the people and places behind it and whose way of doing business felt aligned with my own.

Then, in the summer of 2022, I began holding women's moon circles.

We would gather around the New Moon, set intentions and work with crystals as supportive allies within those practices. I began bringing the crystals I had carefully sourced into the circles and the women attending started asking whether I could source pieces for them too.

So I did.

One crystal became another, then another and what had begun through my own Reiki, wellbeing and mindfulness work gradually grew beyond the circles.

That is how Moon & Earth Crystals came to be.

The name itself reflects those beginnings: the Moon, from the women's circles where the idea began to take shape and the Earth, from the crystals and natural world at the heart of what I was creating.

And the question I was asking back then still sits at the heart of how we source today:

Where has this come from and what is the story behind it?

 

The people behind the crystals

Today, we deliberately work with a small number of trusted suppliers, many of whom we've built relationships with over a number of years.

And those relationships go much deeper than simply placing an order.

Some of our main suppliers regularly travel to the countries and communities they source from. They've physically visited the mines, met the miners and their families, seen the working conditions firsthand and know the people involved in cutting, polishing and carving the material.

One of our suppliers works directly with a mining operation in Madagascar where the people working there are paid fairly. When he travels out, he also takes additional supplies for the local community, from clothing to pencils and colouring materials for the children.

Another supplier has personally visited the mines throughout their supply chain. They've seen firsthand the people involved and the conditions in which they work and have also helped fund equipment needed by some of the mining communities they work with.

This matters enormously to us.

It means we're not simply choosing a beautiful finished object. Wherever possible, we're choosing through people who know the story behind it and have genuine relationships with the people and communities involved.

 

How does the wider crystal trade work?

You might never have thought about what happens between a crystal being mined and appearing in a crystal shop.

It's actually a fascinating and sometimes very complicated journey.

Crystals can travel through several countries and many different hands. There are enormous international crystal trading centres where material from around the world is processed and sold in commercial quantities, sometimes by the kilogram, box or much larger lot.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a crystal coming through one of these countries or markets.

China, for example, has a significant lapidary and crystal-processing industry. Crystals mined elsewhere in the world may travel there to be cut, polished or carved before continuing their journey.

We have a longstanding supplier relationship in China ourselves and have worked with her for many years because we know her, trust the way she works and feel that her values align with our own.

For us, it isn't about where somebody is based.

It's about knowing who we're buying from and understanding as much as we reasonably can about what happened before that crystal reached them.

That can become much harder when material is purchased anonymously through large wholesale markets.

You may know that you're buying Rose Quartz, for example, without knowing which mine it came from, who mined it, who cut or polished it or very much at all about the people and conditions behind it.

Those are the kinds of things we want to understand wherever we reasonably can.

 

Why we don't simply buy crystals by the kilo

We're regularly offered crystals in bulk and sometimes the prices are incredibly tempting.

It would undoubtedly be easier.

I could buy kilograms of a material, have it delivered, photograph it and put it onto the website. It would be quicker and it would make keeping everything permanently in stock much easier.

But that's never been how I've wanted to buy for Moon & Earth.

I've taken a hands-on approach to our sourcing from the very beginning.

Whenever possible, I physically choose pieces myself. When distance makes that impossible, I'll select through photographs or video instead.

And I really do mean select.

I might look through twenty crystals and choose one (I really do work with the best and most patient suppliers!)

It's laborious for everyone involved but it's something I feel incredibly strongly about. I know the quality I'm looking for. I know what feels right for Moon & Earth and after doing this for years, I have a pretty good idea of the pieces our customers are going to love too.

Buying a kilogram or a large mixed lot doesn't necessarily give me that same choice. There may be some beautiful pieces within it but there may also be pieces I simply wouldn't have chosen.

More importantly, depending on how that stock has been traded, I may know considerably less about where it originally came from and the people involved in getting it there.

There are much quicker ways for us to buy crystals.

We just don't choose the quickest way.

 

Why your favourite crystal sometimes disappears

If you've shopped with Moon & Earth for a while, you'll probably have seen this happen.

Something sells out.

And then... it doesn't come back.

Sometimes for months.

There is actually a reason for that.

Rather than immediately looking elsewhere to fill the space on the website, we'll often wait until the supplier we know and trust has more available.

That can mean waiting for more material to become available from a particular source, then for it to be selected, cut, polished or carved, packed, transported and eventually reach our supplier before we can begin choosing our pieces.

It's a slower way of doing things but it's part of conscious sourcing for us.

I'd rather tell you something is sold out than buy a replacement from somewhere I don't know simply because I want it back on the website.

Larimar is a good example

Larimar is one of those crystals where provenance particularly matters to us.

Genuine Larimar comes from a specific area of the Dominican Republic and mining there brings environmental and worker-safety considerations alongside providing livelihoods within local communities.

For that reason, we're particularly careful about where we buy it.

We only purchase Larimar through a source we're confident in and where we're comfortable with what we know about its provenance.

That means you won't usually see enormous quantities of Larimar at Moon & Earth. Sometimes we'll have a very small collection and sometimes we won't have any at all.

And when we do have it, it may not be the cheapest Larimar you'll find.

We're okay with that.

I'd much rather bring you a smaller collection that I'm comfortable putting the Moon & Earth name behind.

 

Hand-selected, right through to Moon & Earth

Often, the selection has already started before a crystal reaches me.

Our suppliers know us. They know the quality we're looking for and the kinds of pieces I tend to choose. Some material will already have been individually selected by people we trust before we're offered it.

And then I select again.

I look at the quality, the finish, the markings and the individual character of a piece.

And yes, there's also that slightly harder-to-define question I always ask myself:

Does this feel like Moon & Earth?

Sometimes the answer is no.

I'd genuinely rather buy twelve beautiful pieces I love than a hundred simply because buying a hundred made them cheaper.

 

It doesn't stop with crystals

The same philosophy runs through the other things we bring into Moon & Earth.

Wherever possible, we work with independent makers and small businesses whose values feel aligned with our own.

Some of our jewellery and ritual tools are made by hand. Some incorporate reclaimed materials or offcuts that might otherwise go to waste. Our candles and other ritual pieces increasingly come from small businesses and makers who genuinely care about their craft.

I love knowing there are real people behind these things.

And we try to carry that same principle through Moon & Earth itself. There are many people behind the scenes who bring Moon & Earth to life, sharing their skills, creativity and expertise in different ways. I believe their time and their work have value and that people should be paid fairly for what they contribute.

Because none of this is simply a commodity to us.

There is the Earth itself and the material that has come from it. Then there is a whole chain of human hands that may have mined, selected, cut, polished, carved, transported, photographed, packed and eventually sent that piece to you.

All of that has value.

 

Conscious, not perfect

You'll notice that we increasingly talk about conscious sourcing rather than making sweeping claims that every crystal is perfectly or 100% ethically sourced.

That's deliberate.

The international crystal supply chain is complicated and I don't think it would be honest to pretend that we can know absolutely everything about every stage of every crystal's journey.

What we can do is care enough to ask.

We can keep our supplier network deliberately small. We can build longstanding relationships. We can ask where material came from and prioritise suppliers who know their own supply chains. We can support people whose way of doing business aligns with ours. We can buy less when that feels right, wait when we need to and walk away when we're not comfortable with what we know.

There will always be more to learn and more questions to ask.

But perhaps that's the point.

Moon & Earth began because I wanted to know more about the crystals I was placing into people's hands. Years later, that same curiosity, care and respect still guide what we choose to bring into the shop.

From the Earth, through many hands and eventually into yours, the journey matters to us.