Tourmaline

It is said that when tourmaline made its long voyage from the center of the earth to the surface, it met a rainbow on its way and took all of its colors with it. There is no other gemstone on earth with such transparency, purity and hardness, that presents all of these amazing colors, as well as stunning combinations of two of three colors (dichroic or triochroic tourmalines). Depending on the type of lighting (natural or artificial), the stone can change color (alexandrite phenomenon), while depending on looking direction, can be darker or lighter (dichroism). Since the dawn of ages, the infinite facets of this gem have caused men to believe it held magical powers. It was considered the stone of friendship and love, a powerful gem that could protect its owner you evil. The crystals of pleochroic tourmaline are often cut in slices of 2mm thickness. When shined, the slices bring out the very beautiful chromatic combinations of the stone. This quality of tourmaline is known as the watermelon tourmaline. The different combinations of tourmaline have respective names, which are not often since the names that have prevailed are green tourmaline, pink, and so on. The most usual colors that can be found on the market are the green and red ones. Tourmaline has a triangular crystallographic system, a hardness if 7,5, and a specific gravity of 3.06. The most sought after type of tourmaline was found in the city Paraiba, Brazil. It has an exquisite blue color and is worth 40.000 euro a carat when cut. Besides Brazil, tourmaline is found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, etc. {gallery}material_tourmalin{/gallery}