A simple but effective studio for doing the mineral specimen shots was assembled on a couple of adjacent card tables. A piece of black poster board was employed as a seamless background. A piece of black spandex material was draped over it and used as background for several of the images. The most challenging problem with an indoor studio is the lighting. Reproducing the effect of sunlight indoors on the cheap is not easy.
Tungsten sources are too yellow, cool white fluorescents are too cool, grow lights are too red.
Mixing different colored sources in various combinations can yield satisfactory results. Wide spectrum fluorescent bulbs are available but are not a panacea. Direct sunlight streaming through an unobstructed window can be nice to work with if you can arrange it. Clouds are great diffusers. Of course you can always shoot outside in the sunlight, but depending on your situation this may require you to record the shot and frame grab off tape rather than the undegraded live signal from the video camera.