The beauty of Tourmaline

Tourmaline –  and my alternative birthstone for October.

It is really hard to believe that it’s nearly the middle of the year; I have had an amazing beginning to this year with the thrill of seeing some of my most complex designs come to fruition through Matthew’s outstanding skill of interpreting my drawings. I will be showcasing a lot of these over the next few months, and it will establish without doubt the amount of thought and planning that goes into our commissioned work. In many cases, Matt has spent hours of thought preparing his next step so the making of the piece achieves the level of expertise he is proud of.  Congratulations Matt for the most outstanding work.

Now I would like to share with you my love of a particular gemstone called Tourmaline. I have always marvelled at the vast range of colours that are available ranging from nearly colourless to pale greens, pinks and yellows through to deep versions of green, blue/green, bronze, pinks and reds – it’s even found in black.

Tourmaline’s been around for centuries and early documentation states that it had been a mistaken stone –  the greens were thought to be emeralds and the reds thought to be rubies. It’s only more recently that they were identified as Tourmaline and many cultures believe them to hold mystical powers and are thought to include healing, thriving, peace, tranquillity, honesty, joy, passion, virility, courage, stamina and strength. What a gem!

The vibrancy of mixed shades is also amazing and this is displayed when a stone cutter chooses to cut a tourmaline crystal into a gem displaying more than one colour. The gems, normally long rectangular cuts, have two or three bands of different colours in the one stone.  In reality the merging is beautifully subtle and the colours blend together in turn creating many more shades of colour at the blending point. The pink and green mix is often referred to as ‘watermelon tourmaline’.

My family has always loved these stunning gems. Helen wears a three stone ring combining a deep champagne colour centre stone with two greens, each as side stones.

Lou’s engagement ring features a blue/green cushion cut hero stone and my daughter-in-law Nadine has a chrome tourmaline as her centre stone. Helen also has collected tourmalines, some of them more unusual as free form fish where the natural crystals have been carved into a shape by hand. It seems the potential is unlimited.

I hope you have, or get to wear a tourmaline, they are a truly spectacular family of gems.

Cheers for now

NicholasX