 Tourmaline's
name comes from the Sinhalese word "turmali," which
means "mixed." Bright rainbow collections of gemstone
varieties were called "turmali" parcels. Tourmaline,
occurring in more colors and combinations of colors than any
other gemstone variety, lives up to its name. There is a tourmaline
that looks like almost any other gemstone! Many stones in
the Russian Crown jewels from the 17th Century once thought
to be rubies are actually tourmalines.
 Perhaps
this is why this gemstone is said to encourage artistic
intuition: it has many faces and expresses every mood.
The Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi,
the last Empress of China, loved pink tourmaline and bought
almost a ton of it from the new Himalaya Mine, located a
long way from the Middle Country in California. The Himalaya
Mine is still producing tourmaline today but the Dowager
went to rest eternally on a carved tourmaline pillow.
 Tourmaline
is also of interest to scientists because it changes its
electrical charge when heated. It becomes a polarized crystalline
magnet and can attract light objects. This property was
noticed long ago before science could explain it: in the
Netherlands, tourmalines were called "aschentrekkers"
because they attracted ashes and could be used to clean
pipes!
Tourmaline occurs in every
color of the rainbow and combinations of two or three colors.
Bicolor and tricolor tourmalines, with bands of colors are
very popular. Sometimes the colors are at different ends
of the crystal and sometimes there is one color in the heart
of the crystal and another around the outside. One color
combination, pink center with a green rind, is called "watermelon
tourmaline" (seedless, of course!) Sometimes designers
set slices of the crystal instead of faceted stones to show
off this phenomenon.
Almost every color of tourmaline
can be found in Brazil, especially in Minas Gerais and Bahia.
Pink and green colors are particularly popular. In 1989,
miners discovered tourmaline unlike any that had ever been
seen before. The new type of tourmaline, which soon became
known as Paraiba tourmaline, came in incredibly vivid blues
and greens. The demand and excitement for this new material,
which soon fetched more than $10,000 per carat, earned more
respect for the other colors of tourmaline.
Pink and green tourmaline
are now widely available and are especially popular in designer
jewelry. Blue tourmalines are also very much in demand but
the supply is more limited.
Tourmalines are most often
cut in long rectangular shapes because of their long and
narrow crystal shape. Tourmaline crystals are beautiful,
pencil thin and ridged, and they are also sometimes set
in jewelry. Some designers also set rainbows of tourmaline
in each color of the spectrum. Tourmaline is strongly pleochroic:
the darkest color is always seen looking down the axis of
the crystal.
In addition to Brazil, tourmaline
is also mined in Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique,
Namibia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and California
and Maine in the United States. Maine produces beautiful
sherbet colors of tourmaline and spectacular minty greens.
California is known for perfect pinks, as well as beautiful
bicolors.
One particularly beautiful
variety is chrome tourmaline, a rare type of tourmaline
from Tanzania which occurs in a very rich green color caused
by chromium, the same element which causes the green in
emerald.
Tourmaline is a hard and durable
gemstone which can withstand years of wear. You might want
to avoid steam cleaning or heat.
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