Emmy's Crystals & Gifts to Celebrate Year Anniversary Sunday

In July, Emmy’s Crystals and Gifts in Glendale Heights will celebrate its one year anniversary. To celebrate, the store is hosting an Artisan & Crystal Market Pop-Up from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., July 7. The shop and pop-up is located at 1578 Bloomingdale Road in Glendale Heights. Owner Emmy Sandowski opened the store because, as a life-long crystal collector, she wanted an outlet to release the crystals she was no longer collecting, as well as to connect with the public.“I’ve collected crystals for 20 years,” she said. “My collection was getting pretty big and I wanted to start sharing them with people.Sandowski said she even thought of opening a museum type of space, but eventually settled on her current shop.“I decided to open a brick and mortar crystal shop,” she said. “I wanted to kind of bring back this sense of connection with people.”Sandowski grew up around a retail space.“I grew up and my parents owned a pharmacy growing up where we had a big retail section,” she said. “I wanted to bring back some of those old school retail values.”On Sunday, Sandowski will have crystals, women’s wear, crafted goods, accessories and psychics. Among those with intuitive gifts is Sydney Vege, a psychic tarot card reader who recently began working at the shop on Fridays.“We kind of entered each other’s lives in perfect timing,” Vege said. “She was like you know you could set up a little space in my store. “We both helped each other out.”When she isn’t working in the service industry or doing readings, Vege likes to craft jewelry with crystals as well.Vege lost her dad about eight years ago and beginning to read cards helped her to feel alive again. She met and is mentored by famous psychic medium Andrew Anderson and she said that connection helped her hone her gift and found her a home at Emmy’s.“I got a reading from Andrew and he was like you should learn the cards, I’ll mentor you,” she said. “I was looking at crystal shops and he actually found Emmy's for me.”Sandowski said she connected with Andrew and Syndney about a month ago.“He’s trained Sydney as his number one mentee,” she said. He’s trained her as a tarot card reader. He chose Emmy’s crystals to debut Sydney.”Sandowski said Vege is very well liked and good at what she does.“They feel as though the vibes here match what they are doing for readings,” Sandowski said. “She is coming every Friday to read for people between 12 to 5.”For her part, Sandowski said she opened a brick and mortar store to share her own crystal collection with people. And she wants to emphasize that in her case, this was not small pieces, although many of the larger original pieces have sold."We still have some larger cathedrals or larger style museum pieces," she said.She chose her shop location in Glendale Heights in part because its diversity means cultures outside of America would frequent the shop and, in her experience, see crystals differently.“There's people from all over the world here,” she said. “That’s good for something like a crystal shop. Internationally people understand crystals and rock. It's more of a new age thing for Americans; for other people it’s not.”She said she was surprised at how quickly her collection pieces found new homes.“I’m surprised how fast the pieces have sold,” she said. “I’ve turned over quite a few crystals.”Although many of her original pieces have sold, Sandowski went to the gem show in Tucson in February to bring back more pieces, especially those she has noticed her customers prefer. Sandowski said her own collection of crystals started in 2004 when she fell in love with amethyst.“I just felt good around them,” she said. “I felt at peace.”She details how she felt the energy of the stone.“It's a protection stone,” she said. “It kind of wards off certain things. It wards off addiction, it wards off negative energy. I put them in my backyard, in my garden at times. “I started working in healthcare and it was just something positive I could do as a hobby.”At its height, Sandowski said her personal collection was between 250 and 300 pieces.“I have a three bedroom home,” she said. “One bedroom was completely covered in crystals.”Sandowski did make sure to keep some of her favorite pieces for herself.“I held on to some clear quartz that I call source stone - Lemerian or Atlantian,” she said. “It's a communication stone. They knew how to use the quartz for energy use or communication.”Sandowski also held on to some kunsite and watermelon tourmaline.“I just redid my home,” she said. "My decor in my living room is Mexican agate.”Most of her collection pieces, though, have moved on to new homes.“Ninety percent of my collection has come through the store,” she said. “I would say there is only about 20 percent left.”Emmy’s Crystals and Gifts is located at 1578 Bloomingdale Road in Glendale Heights. In addition to crystals and psychic readings, the store will be adding reiki, yoga and other healing modalities. You can learn more at https://www.crystalshopglendaleheights.com.