Audio #02 Are the Prettiest Stones the Most Powerful? Why I, as a Stone Dealer, Don't Say That for Sure | A Monologue from Seino Stone Shop

This note article is based entirely on a script.

In the actual YouTube episode, I talk about things that are hard to put into words in writing, haha. If you'd like, please lend me your ears♪

“Are the prettier stones actually more powerful?”

When choosing natural stones or power stones, I think this is something everyone wonders about at least once.

High transparency.
Deep, uniform color.
No visible scratches or inclusions, looking beautiful at a glance even in photos.

Such stones certainly have an eye-catching beauty.

As a stone dealer, I also pay attention to color, luster, and how light enters the stone.
When I see a beautiful stone, I am naturally drawn to it, and I want to use good materials.

Even so,

“Because it’s beautiful, this stone is more powerful”

is not something I would say for sure.

In this monologue, I talked about why I consider the beauty of a stone and the commonly discussed “power” as separate things.

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Click here for audio

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Choosing based on what you like is very important. The first thing I want to convey is that choosing a stone based on its appearance is not bad at all. You like the color. You like how it shines. You like the vibe when you wear it on your wrist. If it’s a bracelet you wear every day, it’s important to feel that way. When you put it on in the morning, your mood settles a bit. When you catch a glimpse of it during work, you think, “I really do love this stone.” That feeling has real meaning. Seino Stone Shop doesn’t think that “stones aren’t about looks.” Looks are important. Being able to say you love it is one of the reasons you’ll keep wearing it. However, I don’t want to decide everything about a stone based solely on its visual beauty. ⸻ Don’t put beauty, quality, rarity, and “power” in the same box. There are standards for evaluating the quality of natural stones. Transparency, color development, the state of inclusions, the finish of the polish, and production volume. These factors also relate to market evaluation and price. However, there are things I want to separate here. Being beautiful as a stone. Being highly valued in the market. Being rare. Being a good piece for the person who owns it. Even if these overlap, they are not all the same. Just because it has high transparency doesn’t mean it’s the stone that person needs. Just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it can be worn carefully in daily life. Conversely, just because a stone has visible inclusions or is a common, widely circulated stone doesn’t mean it loses its value. In quality assessment, a lack of inclusions can be a standard. However, that alone doesn’t determine the charm of the stone or its connection to the person who owns it. There are stones that looked plain in photos but feel strangely calming when you actually hold them in your hand. There are stones that aren’t strong in color but quietly bring everything together when made into a bracelet. Stones have a presence that cannot be captured by price lists or photos alone. I want to keep looking at that aspect as well. ⸻ If you line up expensive stones, does it make a good bracelet? If you look at them one by one, they are all beautiful, rare, and expensive. If you collect such stones, will they always make a good bracelet? I don’t think it’s that simple. Even if each stone is attractive, sometimes the stones clash too much when put together in one piece. The colors and light are too strong, and you don’t know where to look. The stones stand out too much, and the person wearing them gets left behind. Conversely, even if you don’t use particularly rare stones, if the layering of colors, the size of the beads, and the way the light enters match, it can come together naturally as a single piece. What Seino Stone Shop looks at is not just the price of a single stone. Can that person wear it with their everyday clothes? Is it comfortable for work and daily life? When placed on the wrist, does only the stone stand out more than the person? Can they imagine wanting to keep it on hand even after time passes? Using good stones and making a good bracelet are similar but slightly different. As a stone dealer, I believe what’s important is not lining up expensive materials, but making it work as a single piece. ⸻ I don’t deny beautiful stones. But I don’t make beauty the only answer. I like beautiful stones. I like stones with transparency, stones with deep colors, and stones that show rare light. So, I don’t want to lower the value of beautiful stones. However, I don’t want to say, “It’s powerful because it’s beautiful,” “It’s necessary because it’s expensive,” “It’s weak because it has inclusions,” or “It’s low value because it’s a common stone.” Beauty has the value of beauty. Rarity has the value of rarity. Market prices also have reasons for being that price. And what does the owner feel when they see that stone? How naturally can they keep it by their side in daily life? That is also another important standard. Instead of making one of these the correct answer and discarding the others, I look at each separately. That is the current philosophy of Seino Stone Shop. ⸻ It sounds like I’m talking about stones, but it’s also about the people who own them. When choosing natural stones, you sometimes want an easy answer. The most beautiful stone. The rarest stone. The most expensive stone. The stone said to have the most “power.” Because it feels like there’s no mistake if you choose from those. However, if you decide only by that order, you might lose sight of the person who owns the stone. What Seino Stone Shop wants to create is not a piece that we explain as “powerful” to everyone in the same way. It is a piece that the owner can naturally incorporate into their daily life. Instead of letting the stone decide your life, you place the stone to remind yourself of what you have decided. That is why I don’t just look at the stone and finish there. Are the prettiest stones really the most powerful? I cannot summarize the answer in one word. However, why don’t I say it easily? As a stone dealer, what do I see besides beauty? I talk about this a bit more slowly in the audio, covering parts that cannot be conveyed through text alone. For those who want to stop and think about the criteria for choosing stones, please listen to the voice recording.