Working with Tourmaline

Tourmalines were first brought into the Western Jewellery market in 1703 by the Dutch importing this gemstone, called ‘turamali’, from Sri Lanka. Africa (Namibia, Nigeria Tanzania & Zambia) Brazil, Myanmar (Burma) Pakistan, Russia, United States (California)

The variety of colours is vast, ranging from pastels, intense neon’s, unique bi and tricolours. Usually iron rich tourmalines are black to bluish-black to deep brown in colour. Magnesium rich varieties are brown to yellow and lithium rich tourmalines are almost any colour, blue, green, red, yellow and pink.

The cutting of this stone is very important as different shades of a colour can be seen at different angles. Many facetted tourmalines have step cuts or scissor cuts to bring light into the stone.

When working with tourmaline for an engagement ring it is important you keep in mind a good amount of protection around the stone as it is quite fragile. It is liable to break under pressure from setting or knocks due to its indistinct cleaverage and uneven, brittle fracture. It is also not the hardness of stones, an all around (rub over) is the most protective as it covers the entire edge of the stone.

An interesting fact is if tourmalines are rubbed or heated, they become electrically charged. As a result they will attract dust, fluff and dirt. Due to this, tourmaline jewellery needs to be cleaned with a fine toothbrush and soap water more frequently than other jewellery.

One of the most desirable tourmalines is the ‘neon tourmaline’, from Paraiba which is a Brazilian state, where a mine found to have one of the greatest 20th century finds, the ‘neon tourmaline’. The colour ranges from intense and vibrant greens, turquoise blues and lilacs. They became high in demand within the jewellery market thus raising the price considerably. Consequently there is now only a small amount in the mines. This is an amazing stone and is one of my favourites, so keep a look out and why not consider a tourmaline engagement ring.