Red Tourmaline - more pics

[klewis]

I''ve been trying for days to take more photos of my new stone, I wanted to capture more of the daylight colour which I would have thought would be easier than it has been, but these pics show it quite well.

I''d love to tap into some of the knowledge out there and so any suggestions on setting would be welcome. It is to be a man''s ring - I don''t mind some fancy/ornate but not too fine. To give you an idea of how what I mean I''ll also post a pic of my most ornate ring I have which is chunky but still chuncky enough for me to wear without it being too feminine.
Hmmm I can''t do 2 pics in one post so this may take a little while.

 

[klewis]

And another

 

[mochi]

Oh, Klewis!!

Pretty tourmaline!! Be careful with the photo shoot!!

 

[klewis]

Ha Mochi - don''t choke on your pizza!

This is the ornate ring

 

[klewis]

I just like the combination of colours in this pic.

 

[mochi]

I''m no much of a expert but I love that tourmaline!!

Just a few pictures...

 

[mochi]

I didn''t see a out door picture...

 

[T L]

Definitely nicer pics than the first one you ever posted of this stone.

It's really gorgeous in the first pic above - very hot pink!

Man's ring - sorry, my brain goes dead when I think of men's jewelry.

 

[mochi]

another one...

 

[mochi]

Something in this style...?

 

[mochi]

Or this style...

 

[klewis]

Date: 3/14/2009 6:30:06 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
Definitely nicer pics than the first one you ever posted of this stone.

It''s really gorgeous in the first pic above - very hot pink!


Man''s ring - sorry, my brain goes dead when I think of men''s jewelry.

These are all daylight photos and show the stones daylight colours well - the first pic I had posted was indoors and under incandescent lighting and it''s show quite an intense red in that lighting and I really enjoy that colour as much as this more vivid colour.

Thank you for your comments TL.

 

[klewis]

Date: 3/14/2009 6:28:31 PM
Author: mochi
I didn''t see a out door picture...

No outdoor photos Mochi, but the conservatory, which has great natural light, was as close to the wilds of nature as I would dare to venture. Thanks for those ring pics. I really like the simplicity of the first one with the green (peridot?) stone. I also like the ring with the ribbed shank and side stones. I was thinking how best to set it given it is not the hardest stone and being emerald cut I would think means I need to make sure the girdle of the stone is protected?

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Gorgeous, gorgeous stone! I love EC gemstones!

 

[Skippy123]

Oh wow, it is so beautiful!!!

 

[klewis]

Thanks LTP and Skippy

 

[AGBF]

Hi, klewis (aka "my dear young man")! I never heard of a red tourmaline before, but I love all red stones! I think it is great that tourmaline comes in red! I also like your ornate ring, which surprises me. I wouldn't have thought I would like that look, but something...perhaps seeing it with the quotation you have...made me think of medieval times and dragons and castles and magic. I like a ring that can evoke thoughts of magic and fantasy! Do you have any other shots of it?

Good luck setting the tourmaline!

AGBF

 

[chrono]

Well, a red tourmaline is also known as rubellite, right? Yours look very rich in colour and yellow gold would be a wonderful match. I''m not good with settings and designs but just wanted to pop in to say it''s a lovely stone and especially in an emerald step cut.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Sooooo pretty!

 

[AGBF]

Date: 3/14/2009 9:25:02 PM
Author: Chrono

Well, a red tourmaline is also known as rubellite, right?

Chrono, you really hit on something that has been nagging at me for some time! I studied geology in college. (I don't mean that I majored in it! I mean that I took one course in it as well as a course or two in physical geography!) I have forgotten most of what I knew about rock crystals and I never knew much...although I recall looking at a large rock that I was told was a garnet and having to learn about its structure!!! (I would remember the garnet, not the granite, wouldn't I!!??)

At any rate, I didn't know what rubellite was! I heard the word, but I had no idea it was just pink tourmaline. I think I vaguely asociated it with rhodolite garnets in my mind!

At any rate, I looked up toumalines and was astounded to see that not only are rubellites tourmalines, but so are peridots! Thank you for the heads up! I had better spend more time in Colored Stones! I am always in the The Gold Thread!!!

This quotation is from Old and Sold Antiques Digest.

"TOURMALINE is unsurpassed even by corundum in variety of hue, and it has during recent years rapidly advanced in public favour, mainly owing to the prodigal profusion in which nature has formed it in that favoured State, California, the garden of the west. Its comparative softness militates against its use in rings, but its gorgeous coloration renders it admirably fitted for service in any article of jewellery, such as a brooch or a pendant, in which a large central stone is required. Like all coloured stones it is generally brilliant-cut in front and step-cut at the back, but occasionally it is sufficiently fibrous in structure to display, when cut en cabochon, pronounced chatoyancy.

The composition of this complex species has long been a vexed question among mineralogists, but considerable light was recently thrown on the subject by Schaller, who showed that all varieties of tourmaline may be referred to a formula of the type 2S 1 02. 3 B203.(9 —x)[(A1,Fe)203].3x[(Fe,Mn,Ca, Mg,K2,Na2,Li2,H2)O].3H20. The ratios of boric oxide, silica, and water are nearly constant in all analyses, but great variation is possible in the proportions of the other constituents. Having regard to this complexity, it is not surprising to find that the range in colour is so great. Colourless stones, to which the name achroite is sometimes given, were at one time exceedingly rare, but they are now found in greater number in California. Stones which are most suited to jewellery purposes are comparatively free from iron, and apparently owe their wonderful tints to the alkaline earths ; lithia, for instance, is responsible for the beautiful tint of the highly prized rubellite, and magnesia, no doubt, for the colour of the brown stones of various tints. Tourmaline rich in iron is black and almost opaque. It is a striking peculiarity of the species that the crystals are rarely uniform in colour throughout, the boundaries between the differently coloured portions being sharp and abrupt, and the tints remarkably in contrast. Sometimes the sections are separated by planes at right angles to the length of the crystal, and sometimes they are zonal, bounded by cylindrical surfaces running parallel to the same length. In the latter case a section perpendicular to the length shows zones of at least three contrasting tints. In the Brazilian stones the core is generally red, bounded by white, with green on the exterior, while the reverse is the case in the Californian stones, the core being green or yellow, bounded by white, with red on the exterior. Tourmaline may, indeed, be found of almost every imaginable tint, except, perhaps, the emerald green and the royal sapphire-blue. The principal varieties are rose-red and pink (rubellite) (Plate XXVII, Fig. I), green (Brazilian emerald), indigo-blue (indicolite), blue (Brazilian sapphire), yellowish green (Brazilian peridot) (Plate XXVII)"

AGBF

 

[klewis]

Thanks Chrono and Monkeypie.
I''m not sure if Rubellite is more or less acceptable term than red tourmaline. I do like the latter because there''s no reference to ruby. It''s not that I dislike rubies, in fact I love them, but no need to compare the two.

AGBF I do have a couple of other photos of the ring. I bought this ring because of the design rather than the stone which is a diamond slither of dubious quality, set in front of a sheet of silver foil and which most definitely falls into the "frozen spit" category of diamonds - a description that one poster on PS used to describe the look of some diamonds. This phrase really made me laugh, and it is so accurate sometimes. Anyway I just like the ring.

As for the "my dear young man", .....hell''s teeth, are you trying to frighten me? I''m not a dragons/castle/magic kind of person really, are you referring to the Tagore quote? He''s (was) amazing., a commonsense mystic. I love his short stories and his poem ''In One Salutation to Thee" is just beautiful. Google the title plus Tagore to read the poem. Anyway here''s the other ring photo showing the frozen stuff.

 

[T L]

A rubellite should hold it's color in all light though.

I got this from the gemstone.org website

There is an important criterion for this especially beautiful gemstone, and that is the way its colour behaves in daylight and artificial light. Many gemstones change their colour depending on the light source. A true rubellite does not. It shines just as intensely in artificial light as it does in daylight. The colour of most other pink or red tourmalines, by contrast, displays a more or less clearly visible tinge of brown in artificial light

This makes sense because the bulk of most red and pink tourmalines do show a brown secondary modifier in artificial light. I would not call those rubellite.

 

[babysteps]

Wow, great stone! Love both the color and the cut - I think it will make a terrific ring

 

[klewis]

Date: 3/14/2009 9:53:07 PM
Author: AGBF

At any rate, I looked up toumalines and was astounded to see that not only are rubellites tourmalines, but so are peridots! Thank you for the heads up! I had better spend more time in Colored Stones! I am always in the The Gold Thread!!!



AGBF

I don''t think this is correct. Peridot is not a tourmaline, but perhaps Brazilian Peridot is a term for a yellowish green tourmaline. Can someone who really knows help us out here??

 

[chrono]

Date: 3/14/2009 11:43:31 PM
Author: klewis

Date: 3/14/2009 9:53:07 PM
Author: AGBF

At any rate, I looked up toumalines and was astounded to see that not only are rubellites tourmalines, but so are peridots! Thank you for the heads up! I had better spend more time in Colored Stones! I am always in the The Gold Thread!!!



AGBF

I don''t think this is correct. Peridot is not a tourmaline, but perhaps Brazilian Peridot is a term for a yellowish green tourmaline. Can someone who really knows help us out here??

I too was puzzled when I read that quote. I''ve never heard of Peridot being a tourmaline.

 

[klewis]

Date: 3/14/2009 11:37:49 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
A rubellite should hold it''s color in all light though.


I got this from the gemstone.org website


There is an important criterion for this especially beautiful gemstone, and that is the way its colour behaves in daylight and artificial light. Many gemstones change their colour depending on the light source. A true rubellite does not. It shines just as intensely in artificial light as it does in daylight. The colour of most other pink or red tourmalines, by contrast, displays a more or less clearly visible tinge of brown in artificial light


This makes sense because the bulk of most red and pink tourmalines do show a brown secondary modifier in artificial light. I would not call those rubellite.

TL I don''t know have the knowledge to know if it''s a brown mask that it shows in incandescent light, but I don''t think it looks at all brownish. The colour does differ to its day colour - there is certainly no loss of transparency- it''s crystal clear in both lights and I do like this colour as much, perhaps more than the day colour but given the description above I guess it''s not a true rubellite.

 

[klewis]

Thanks babysteps - I look forward to wearing it one day!

 

[BWise]

What an intense color!

That first picture reminds me of a ruby...

 

[FrekeChild]

What a beautiful stone!!!! More pictures please!!!!

 

[AGBF]

Date: 3/14/2009 11:43:31 PM
Author: klewis

Date: 3/14/2009 9:53:07 PM
Author: AGBF


At any rate, I looked up toumalines and was astounded to see that not only are rubellites tourmalines, but so are peridots! Thank you for the heads up! I had better spend more time in Colored Stones! I am always in the The Gold Thread!!!



AGBF

I don't think this is correct. Peridot is not a tourmaline, but perhaps Brazilian Peridot is a term for a yellowish green tourmaline. Can someone who really knows help us out here??

You are quite right, klewis. I am guilty of sloppy reading! It did not say that in the article I quoted that a peridot was another term for a variety of tourmaline but only that the terms, "Brazilian peridot" and "Ceylonese peridot" were terms used for varieties of tourmaline. Peridot has an entirely different composition. I went and looked it up (here)!

"Peridot (pronounced pair-a-doe) is the gem variety of olivine. Olivine, which is actually not an official mineral, is composed of two minerals: fayalite and forsterite. Fayalite is the iron rich member with a pure formula of Fe2SiO4. Forsterite is the magnesium rich member with a pure formula of Mg2SiO4. Olivine's formula is written as (Mg, Fe)2SiO4 to show the substitution of the magnesium and iron. Peridot is usually closer to forsterite than fayalite in composition although iron is the coloring agent for peridot. The best colored peridot has an iron percentage of less than 15% and includes nickel and chromium as trace elements that may also contribute to the best peridot color.

Gem quality peridot comes from the ancient source of Zagbargad (Zebirget) Island in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt; Mogok, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma); Kohistan, Pakistan; Minas Gerais, Brazil; Eifel, Germany; Chihuahua, Mexico; Ethiopia; Australia; Peridot Mesa, San Carlos Apache Reservation, Gila County, Arizona and Salt Lake Crater, Oahu, Hawaii, USA. The best quality peridot has historically come either from Myanmar or Egypt. But new sources in Pakistan are challenging that claim with some exceptional specimens. The Arizona gem material is of lesser quality, but is far more abundant and is therefore much more affordable. An estimated 80 - 95% of all world production of peridot comes from Arizona. The Myanmar, Pakistani and Egyptian gems are rarer and of better quality and thus quite valuable approaching the per carat values of top gemstones. Possibly the most unusual peridot is that which comes from iron-nickel meteorites called pallasites. Some are actually facetted and set in jewelry."

AGBF