Crystal clear
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years AGO
Tia Seibel, owner of Fairygenix Crystals, shows a crescent moon made of moss agate. Seibel offers a variety of crystal home decorations.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
These hand-carved roses for sale by Fairygenix are made of rose quartz, left, and dream amethyst. Owner Tia Seibel keeps most of her stock in a room in her apartment and sells at pop-ups and festivals, which lets her keep her prices low.
Tia Seibel shines an ultraviolet light on a figure of an angel, causing parts of it to glow orange. The angel is made of yooperlite, a mineral crystal found in Michigan’s upper peninsula.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | August 9, 2024 2:50 AM
MOSES LAKE — Sometimes, a business starts just because a hobbyist has too much of a good thing.
“I was collecting crystals actively, and I had posted some things on Snapchat,” said Tia Seibel of Moses Lake. “I posted them because I was trying to get rid of multiples in my collection and people were asking me, ‘Do you have this?’ ‘Can you get more of this?’ ‘I would like this.’ So, I kind of took it upon myself and I ordered my first wholesale order, and that’s how it started.”
“It” is Fairygenix Crystals, Seibel’s business dealing in rocks and minerals in all shapes and colors. The smaller pieces Seibel turns into bracelets and rings, but the larger pieces make scintillating, sometimes elaborate, home décor items.
Fairygenix’s offerings include various sizes and shapes of crystal towers, a cobra made from blue fluorite, a couple of strangely real-looking roses made from dream amethyst and rose quartz and a skull made of labradorite.
“I work with a few wholesalers, and most of my wholesalers do the carving themselves, because I prefer hand carved things,” she said, pointing out the telltale marks on a figurine of a dog that was carved by machine.
“The mouth and the nose and the eyes, those were done by a Dremel,” she said. “But the rest of this was done by a machine. You can see the lines through it … It still has to be done quote-unquote ‘by hand’ because you have to program the machine, but it’s not quite the same.”
The wholesalers Seibel buys her crystals from can turn out a unique hand-carved piece in anywhere from one to three days, she said. Most of her suppliers are in Arizona and Nevada, she said, but she also gets some items from Brazil and India. She’d like to try her hand at carving herself, she said, but she lives in an apartment right now and the noise would make the neighbors unhappy.
The lack of space also means she has to get creative about where she sells her wares. Her first venture into retail sales was at a pop-up at the Seed Cupboard Nursery in Royal City, and she’s also exhibited at the Home and Garden Show at the Grant County Fairgrounds and the Moses Lake Spring Festival. She was at the Grant Count Fair last year, she said, and she’ll be back this year.
There is one advantage to not maintaining a brick-and-mortar store, though, and that’s a lack of overhead. Seibel can charge a fraction of what other crystal vendors do, she said, showing a piece of rare Veracruz amethyst.
“It’s only mined in one mountain in Veracruz, Mexico,” Seibel said. “It’s super expensive, super rare. A piece like that in a retail shop is around $325, but I priced it at $150."
These hand-carved roses for sale by Fairygenix are made of rose quartz, left, and dream amethyst. Owner Tia Seibel keeps most of her stock in a room in her apartment and sells at pop-ups and festivals, which lets her keep her prices low.
Tia Seibel shines an ultraviolet light on a figure of an angel, causing parts of it to glow orange. The angel is made of yooperlite, a mineral crystal found in Michigan’s upper peninsula.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
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Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.