The Beginning
On a bright balmy day on the northeastern tip of South Africa, I was visiting my friend and mentor at his
home where he invited me to join him in weeding out the tomato section of his organic vegetable garden. This was not the first time I had joined him in the garden, but it was the most
significant visit, impacting not only my personal life, but the direction of my financial endeavors for the
next twenty years.
While knee deep in soil, leaning over the tomato plants, he leaned over to me and shared a vision he had
of me the night before. He said that he saw me sitting on a pile of Gemstones, mentioning rubies in
particular and that pursuing this vision would lead me to a successful life in the field of gemstones. It also
came with a warning that it would only come about as long as I kept up with my prayers and focused on
my spiritual practice. It wasn’t more than a few days that I met a local gemstone dealer, who mentored
me in the gem trade. Later local farm workers and travelers coming from several surrounding countries,
where gemstones are plentiful, started showing up at my door with gem materials. I was not prepared,
i.e. not educated enough to evaluate what they brought to me. On a visit to Johannesburg I came across
the GIA (Gem Institute of America), a worldwide organization that teaches gemstone identification,
evaluation and grading. It just so happened that they were starting advanced classes in all these subjects
and having qualified due to other school credits, I was accepted as a student, eventually becoming
certified in all the classifications mentioned above, as a GAI graduate.
I had moved to South Africa after a blockbuster success in participating in the popularity of stereograms
in the early nineties. I came across some of the first renditions of this new art form early on in its rise in
popularity. My first encounter with 3D art was in a shopping mall in San Antonio Texas. Two young men
had rented a space in the mall, setting up their computers and several dot matrix printers. They had
samples of their 3d Images set up on isles. There were many people gathered around them staring at
the poster while the two young men coached them on how to bring the image they were looking at into
3D. Once they were able to see it there was so much excitement that they wanted to share their
experience with the others that were there. Needless to say, the dot matrix printers were working over
time, printing samples and selling them to eagerly waiting hands. Soon after I engaged these two young
men forming a company called Bella Vista Publications. Over the next year our designs were published
all over the world in the form of books, postcards, posters, mouse pads and calendars. It resulted in a
financial success that made it possible to move myself and family to South Africa, where my passion for
gems and minerals opened up just after that day in the tomato patch of my good friend and mentor, Mr.
Fadhlalla Haeri.
I have come to realize that gemstones are alive and have a very important message to impart to the
human experience. They are living beings, most starting their lives deep within the ground or if you allow,
within the body of the earth. They represent different attributes and qualities that can heal and support us
in evolving those very same qualities and attributes laying hidden within us. Gemstones are a living
metaphor. They start their life in darkness. Then brought into the light of day. They are cleaned,
sometimes polished or cut in order to bring about their hidden beauty and energy to whomever resonates
with them. They represent what is hidden within each one of us, needing to be lifted from the darkness,
brought into the light and through a process of transformation manifest the light that has always been
within us. They are a gift of nature to aid us on our journey to Light.
Ultimately I see all of nature as a book that when we clear our vision we can read that book, discover
what the real story of our lives are and begin to understand the plot the Author is communicating to us.
This is the joy I get out of Rare Earth Bead & Crystal Shop. For over twenty years I have seen this story
play out over and over again bringing joy, renewal, confidence as well as positive change in people's
lives.
This is and remains a great blessing to me.
You all are a blessing, realized when we have the honesty and courage to look within.
David Sterling
Owner: Rare Earth Bead & Crystal Shop
home where he invited me to join him in weeding out the tomato section of his organic vegetable garden. This was not the first time I had joined him in the garden, but it was the most
significant visit, impacting not only my personal life, but the direction of my financial endeavors for the
next twenty years.
While knee deep in soil, leaning over the tomato plants, he leaned over to me and shared a vision he had
of me the night before. He said that he saw me sitting on a pile of Gemstones, mentioning rubies in
particular and that pursuing this vision would lead me to a successful life in the field of gemstones. It also
came with a warning that it would only come about as long as I kept up with my prayers and focused on
my spiritual practice. It wasn’t more than a few days that I met a local gemstone dealer, who mentored
me in the gem trade. Later local farm workers and travelers coming from several surrounding countries,
where gemstones are plentiful, started showing up at my door with gem materials. I was not prepared,
i.e. not educated enough to evaluate what they brought to me. On a visit to Johannesburg I came across
the GIA (Gem Institute of America), a worldwide organization that teaches gemstone identification,
evaluation and grading. It just so happened that they were starting advanced classes in all these subjects
and having qualified due to other school credits, I was accepted as a student, eventually becoming
certified in all the classifications mentioned above, as a GAI graduate.
I had moved to South Africa after a blockbuster success in participating in the popularity of stereograms
in the early nineties. I came across some of the first renditions of this new art form early on in its rise in
popularity. My first encounter with 3D art was in a shopping mall in San Antonio Texas. Two young men
had rented a space in the mall, setting up their computers and several dot matrix printers. They had
samples of their 3d Images set up on isles. There were many people gathered around them staring at
the poster while the two young men coached them on how to bring the image they were looking at into
3D. Once they were able to see it there was so much excitement that they wanted to share their
experience with the others that were there. Needless to say, the dot matrix printers were working over
time, printing samples and selling them to eagerly waiting hands. Soon after I engaged these two young
men forming a company called Bella Vista Publications. Over the next year our designs were published
all over the world in the form of books, postcards, posters, mouse pads and calendars. It resulted in a
financial success that made it possible to move myself and family to South Africa, where my passion for
gems and minerals opened up just after that day in the tomato patch of my good friend and mentor, Mr.
Fadhlalla Haeri.
I have come to realize that gemstones are alive and have a very important message to impart to the
human experience. They are living beings, most starting their lives deep within the ground or if you allow,
within the body of the earth. They represent different attributes and qualities that can heal and support us
in evolving those very same qualities and attributes laying hidden within us. Gemstones are a living
metaphor. They start their life in darkness. Then brought into the light of day. They are cleaned,
sometimes polished or cut in order to bring about their hidden beauty and energy to whomever resonates
with them. They represent what is hidden within each one of us, needing to be lifted from the darkness,
brought into the light and through a process of transformation manifest the light that has always been
within us. They are a gift of nature to aid us on our journey to Light.
Ultimately I see all of nature as a book that when we clear our vision we can read that book, discover
what the real story of our lives are and begin to understand the plot the Author is communicating to us.
This is the joy I get out of Rare Earth Bead & Crystal Shop. For over twenty years I have seen this story
play out over and over again bringing joy, renewal, confidence as well as positive change in people's
lives.
This is and remains a great blessing to me.
You all are a blessing, realized when we have the honesty and courage to look within.
David Sterling
Owner: Rare Earth Bead & Crystal Shop