Multiple friends of mine messaged me the trending Cookie Monster geode… Is this because I’m a gemologist and giant stone dork? Or they know I love strange and unusual rocks? Or have an affinity for cookies? Well, the answer is “yes” to all of the above, but I thought it was interesting that a geode resembling a beloved childhood character is resonating with so many people and going viral.

Science tells us that you never can imagine something you have not already experienced. So if you had never seen the TV show Sesame Street, you would have no idea that this geode looks like Cookie Monster. But for those who have fond memories of this blue Muppet, perhaps it is simple joy to see nature mimicking a familiar character from their life’s memories.

What I love so much about the stones I use in my art are their patterns and how these arrangements are created by nature. Gems and stones grow because of particular temperatures, earth pressures, and chemical elements being in the same place at the same time – it is happenstance, a result of the violent forming of planet earth. I find this absolutely fascinating. Not only does fate and coincidence have to occur, but then the results are fantastic colors, incredible shapes, formations. “Cookie Monster Geode”, since it’s from Brazil, would have formed when cavities developed from gas bubbles that are trapped inside cooling magma (i.e. igneous rock). The cavities then fill up with agate, quartz and other minerals from hydrothermal solutions, or groundwater. These minerals crystalize inside the cavity to create a geode. And sometimes… a Sesame Street doppelgänger.

The stones I choose draw me in, they mesmerize and inspire me. Once in a while, the stones will remind me of something that no one else sees – a vision unique to me because of my personal experiences. I’ll be revisiting this idea of nature mimicking things in real life with my upcoming special collection this Fall, but in the meantime, check out these three pairs of evocative earrings – what do you see?