Crystal Clear

Jewelry historian Carol Woolton, author of The New Stone Age: Ideas and Inspiration for Living with Crystals, cuts through the hype about these fascinating stones.

- By Chris Mann

Jewelry historian, editor, and stylist Carol Woolton has long loved crystals— from her moss agate earrings to the large Madagascan rose quartz in her sitting room. But in recent years, the London-based British Vogue jewelry editor went from purely romancing these stones to researching them and their ever-growing, widespread appeal.

“I looked at the books on the market and thought none really resonated with me,” she says. “I think to me, like probably a lot of people, putting too much science in it takes the romance, the mystery, and the magic away—and I didn’t want a geology book. And at the other end of the spectrum was a little bit too what I say is woo-woo. I don’t believe if you put garnets on your head you’re going to cure a migraine. I wanted to know what I did believe, and I sort of set off on this exploration that took me everywhere.”

Woolton weaves historical analysis with expert interviews and the stories of empowered women sharing their experiences with these natural wonders in The New Stone Age: Ideas and Inspiration for Living with Crystals. Given the seismic shifts in daily living forced by COVID-19, the book serves even more than originally intended as a guide to thriving from the inside out.