Would you happen to be knowledgeable about the mechanics of the mineral solids? I was wondering how structurally sound a ring cast or carved from a single mineral (let’s say a quartz) would be.

I only ever did a bachelor’s in Geo and do some jeweling and gem-dealing, so I have an educated guess that it wouldn’t be, due to cleavage planes making it brittle. I’m contrasting it with its chemical twin, glass, which is successfully formed into a variety of shapes—I imagine this because of its vitreous crystal form giving it more flex than minerals with actual geometric crystal forms. I was fairly confident at first, then started considering how fast cooling can mean only tiny crystals get to form, so maybe that would be sound compared to carving a ring out of a gem-quality sample.

I also recalled that jade minerals have been carved by humans for ages without casting or modern tools, so now I’m doubting my guess, or wondering if less-than-gem-quality materials would work better.