Happy belated Valentine’s Day, and Happy Birthday to all my February-born fans!  Are you ready to be inundated with amethysts?  So much purple — here we go!  First up is this gorgeous Little Amethyst Dragoness by one of my favorites, Russian professional artist Alvia Alcedo.  She captions it, “Little brave dragon on a treasure guard,” melting my heart!  Check out her amazing gallery, and follow her on Facebook to find out when her Etsy Shop is restocked!

From the Wiki:

Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz … The name comes from the Koine Greek ἀμέθυστος amethystos from ἀ- a-, “not” and μεθύσκω methysko / μεθύω methyo, “intoxicate”, a reference to the belief that the stone protected its owner from drunkenness. The ancient Greeks wore amethyst and carved drinking vessels from it in the belief that it would prevent intoxication.  It is one of several forms of quartz.  Amethyst is a semiprecious stone and is the traditional birthstone for February.

Ooh, all I can say is keep that Amethyst away from me — I like my intoxication sometimes, thanks!  Next up is the imposing Amethyst by U.K. deviantartist dawndelver.  There is so much amazing detail in the scales and spines of this dragon, you’ve just got to click the original link to see it all!  Also check out her lovely gallery for more.

Then there is this adorable scene — possibly a mama and her baby? — surrounded by floating stones, the Amethyst Dragon by French professional artist Brunet Sebastien, posting as Magnusss.  Check out his gallery and Facebook for more.

Then back to another favorite, here is a Custom February Dragon by artist and crafter Amaze-ing Hats.  It’s an adorable baby yarn dragon holding an amethyst, and would make a perfect birthday gift for your February sweetheart!  Check out her awesome gallery and Etsy store to order your very own custom creation.

Next up is this regal dragon from the bestiary of the “cutting edge pen-and-paper RPG” Endless Realms, where you “tell your tale with story-driven gameplay mechanics.”  I’ll definitely be checking the system out, since we’re fans of Pathfinder, another alternate DnD system!  But getting back to it, this awesome Amethyst Dragon was created by Canadian professional artist Jen Elliott, posting as jocarra, and you can find out more about the Endless Realms here, and see more of Jen’s wonderful art in her gallery here.

Up next, here’s a Baby Amethyst Dragon by German deviantartist Josephine, posting as cat-meff, just one of a series of dragons you can find in her gallery or on her website.  I really like how, as her fans pointed out, the glow in the amethyst crystals on the wings seems to come from within!

Then we have this one titled Amethyst that shows not only a dragon, but a cavern full of amethysts, and the detail is really amazing!  This is by American deviantartist turnipBerry, and her latest journal entry mentions she’s playing Pokemon, so of course I’m happy to feature her!  Check out her gallery for more.

And once again, I’m ending on another favorite with this beautiful Sleeping Purple Crystal Dragon by the amazing Lindy Briggs of How Many Dragons?.  I love the amethyst wings and details, and she captions it with her process below:

I’d been wanting to make a crystal dragon for so long, but the idea of trying to make my own clay crystals was pretty intimidating. I finally decided to just go ahead and do it. I mixed up some colored translucent clay and got to cutting…

Oh my gosh, I am so happy with how the crystals turned out! It was a lot of slow, painstaking work, but the effect is so cool. I love the dimensionality and detail, and I just can’t stop myself from picking this one up and admiring it.  Crafted from polymer clay, alcohol ink and acrylic paint.

It really is a wonderful design, and as always, you can find Lindy Briggs’ work and order your very own at her Etsy shop How Many Dragons.

I didn’t think about sharing the birthstone descriptions each month until I composed this post, but I plan to share the Wiki information each time going forward, and you can read more about the January stone in my newly updated Garnet Birthstones post, that begins, “The word garnet comes from the 14th‑century Middle English word gernet, meaning ‘dark red’….”

And finally, yes, this post is late too, I apologize for all my tardiness.  I really am trying to get back on track, but so much happened last week — there was Valentine’s dinner and a show with my husband, keeping in touch with my new writing group (an extension of the January class), an awesome board game convention over the weekend …

… and of course, the horrific but utterly, heartbreakingly, too common tragedy in Parkland, Florida, that makes it hard to write an art feature when there’s so much else going on in the world…

… all of which I’ll talk about in my next post, tentatively planned for Thursday.

Thank you as always for reading, take care and hug your loved ones close, and try to stay creative even in these sad times.

Image credits:
+ Little Amethyst Dragoness by Alvia Alcedo
+ Amethyst by dawndelver
+ Amethyst Dragon by Brunet Sebastien, posting as Magnusss
+ Custom February Dragon by Amaze-ing Hats
+ Amethyst Dragon by Jen Elliott, posting as jocarra
+ Baby Amethyst Dragon by cat-meff
+ Amethyst by turnipBerry
+ Sleeping Purple Crystal Dragon by Lindy Briggs of How Many Dragons?