As a child, I was attracted to coloured stones – both natural and synthetic. I would spend hours imagining how I would feel about touching them, working with them, and wearing them. Much like my grandmother, I too would spend hours, sitting with an open jewellery box and look at pieces or lovingly run my hands over them. It was my escape from my house, my reality. In the last couple of months, I find myself reverting to that state. The only difference being that I now have crystals and sparkly rhinestones to physically play with. Looking at coloured stones and working with them has been a way for me to neurotone. The hypnotic power of gemstones offers a way to regulate both my emotional state and my nervous system. During one such spell, I recollected the science behind the practice and its effectiveness as written by Kipling, Stafford and Barthes.
Kim and the Jewel game
Rudyard Kipling’s Kim is often read as an adventure narrative set against the political and cultural complexity of colonial India. What brought my attention to this novel was the article by Barbara Maria Stafford titled “The Jewel Game: Gems, Fascination and the neuroscience of Visual attention” in the Contemporary jewelry in perspective edited by Damian Skinner.
Kim is an Irish orphan raised in India. He moves between identities, languages, and cultural systems with ease. This makes him an ideal agent in the British intelligence network. Alongside this runs a quieter, philosophical journey shaped by his companionship with a Tibetan Lama.
Kim is trained by Lurgan Sahib to see, remember and recall through a seemingly simple exercise. Sahib tells him how to differentiate “sick stones” (treated gemstones) from untreated ones. Then comes the “jewel game.” Kim and another child observe and recall a tray of gemstones and objects with precision, marks, chips and veining. The scene offers a powerful lens to think about perception, value, meaning and ofcourse, embodied cognition.
“Hear my count!” the child burst in, trilling with laughter. “First, are two flawed sapphires—one of two ruttees and one of four as I should judge. The four-ruttee sapphire is chipped at the edge. There is one Turkestan turquoise, plain with black veins, and there are two inscribed—one with a Name of God in gilt, and the other being cracked across, for it came out of an old ring, I cannot read. We have now all five blue stones. Four flawed emeralds there are, but one is drilled in two places, and one is a little carven—”
Gemstones, Memory and Value
On the surface, it’s a memory exercise. But I think it is really about value and not memory at all. In “From Gemstone to Jewellery,” Roland Barthes approaches the link more physically. According to him, gemstones are a sign of a superpower, often evil in nature. He refers to gemstones as having infernal origins (unearthed from hell – underground) and the transformations that they undergo to be civilized objects.” He questions how stones inherit value, if at all they do. What we do not realise is how meanings of objects have been carefully constructed over time.
In the jewel game, the gemstones and ordinary items are kept next to each other, flattened into the same visual field. Their importance shifts from what they are to how they are perceived. In that moment, value is no longer intrinsic. For me, this feels incredibly relevant to contemporary jewellery making. Whether we are designing, wearing, or studying jewellery, we are constantly negotiating between what an object is and what it means.
The hypnotic power of gemstones
If you love gazing at coloured stones or even a piece of reflective coloured glass, then you are not alone. As Stafford writes, value of stones comes through human fascination, which constructed through awareness, long attention, and consciousness. Mindful seeing leads to cognitive retention. Colour is what we retain the most, even if were were to casually glance at them.
Fascination is indeed a hypnotic power that gems have over our minds. Their purpose is make us notice them, see them, remember them, think about them. They can focus our thinking and sort of bind us in the moment, stretching it for as long as we are looking at them. This can be therapeutic when you need to collect your thoughts and prepare yourself for what is next. Conversely, “not thinking” can be the pause that calms you down until the moment passes. It can soothe you when you feel helpless and/or are in pain.
Reasoning this out academically, I now understand what my younger self somehow intuitively knew. Keeping a box of luscious coloured stones (natural, synthetic, glass – doesn’t matter) around and looking at it periodically can be good for your emotional and mental well-being. It is neither an idiosyncratic practice nor a waste of time.
Put together a box of stones for whatever life throws at you.
I hope you find it interesting
Cheers
What do you think?