Look Book

80 | thejewelrybook.com By happenstance – or as it later proved to be, kismet – my rst job out of college was in the art department of Krementz & Co., a large, ne jewelry manufacturer, doing ads, catalogues, copywriting, and large format photography. Flash forward 25 years, I was fully immersed in our glittering industry, and as an extra added bonus, a childhood fascination for gemstones became a signi cant facet of my responsibilities. When Krementz closed in 2013, I was fortunate to have found a second home at Suna Bros. doing exactly the same thing: all things creative and sparkling. Shhhhhhhh. Don't tell anyone, but tourmaline is my favor- ite gem. Well, okay, full disclosure: it's a tie with sapphire, but it just won the coin toss. ere is a ton to say about tourmaline. I don't have enough room on this page with the print getting so tiny it would be illegible, so let's paint a broad brush stroke about this gorgeous gem. Everything about tourmaline is magical. It can be vivid, pastel, or neon. It can be bi-colored and pleochroic, showing di erent colors when viewed from di erent directions, or chatoyant, exhibiting a cat's eye. It is pyroelectric and piezo- electric, electrically charged when heated and under stress respectively. In fact, if a gem-conjuring class was o ered in the curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the focus of the hocus-pocus would surely be on tourmaline. Imagine a cauldron with a com- plex brew, where add- ing a pinch of this mineral or a touch of another results in an entirely di erent look- ing gem. e slightest shift in its composi- tion – POOF! Some- thing unique is born. But for this crazed tourmaline-lover, the most astonishing thing is its kaleidoscopic spectrum. It can be – and is – ALL colors. Gems like emerald, ruby, and aquamarine may be identi ed by a single color range, but not this gem. Tourmaline is THE most colorful of all gems. It occurs in every hue. at's worthy of repeating with capital letters: EVERY HUE. And, added to all these hues is a plethora of possibilities with its varying shades and nuances often in the same stone! Did I not say it was magical? Here's even more tourmaline fascination. Most gems are a va- riety of just one mineral, but not this one. Tourmaline is a group of closely related minerals, all with the same crystal structure. All contain silicon, aluminum, and boron, but a complex blend of other elements give tourmaline varying physical and chemical properties, separating the gem into di erent species like elbaite, liddicoatite, dravite, uvite, and schorl to name a few. Tourmaline's name could not be more apropos. It means "mixed gems," translating from "toramalli" in Sinhalese, a Sri Lankan language. Dutch traders who rst used the term to describe multicolored gems they brought to Europe. Like so many other gems, tourmaline was often mistaken for other gems until the 19th century when it was properly identi ed. We refer to some tourmalines by simply by their color, like green and pink tourmaline, while others have speci c names, like the purplish red rubellite or dark blue indicolite. Canary tourmaline is a sunny yellow and watermelon is, as it sounds, pink and green like its edible namesake. e crème de la crème of this prismatic family was discovered in the late 1980s in the Brazilian state of Paraiba. With hues described as "peacock," "swimming pool blue," "Carib- bean," and my least favorite, "Windex," (yup, like the branded household cleaner), paraiba is the crown jewel of the tourmaline family. Owing its incendiary pal- ette to copper and man- ganese, paraiba quickly gained notoriety among connoisseurs, and is to- day among the rarest and most expensive gems in the world. Brazilian gems are referred to as simply, paraibas. In the early 2000s, tourmaline surprised us once more with gems discovered in Nigeria also containing copper and manganese, with a similar but less intense palette to their Brazilian predecessors. One possibility could be that the Brazilian and African gems share similar geology, as South America and Africa were con- nected pre-continental drift, but we may never know for sure. What we do know is that tourmaline is magni cent and available in a vast selection of hues, shapes, and sizes. And, since everyone has a favorite color, tourmaline could easily be everyone's favorite gem. Dazzle Dazzle Dazzle Dazzle by Danielle Barber Spring 2022 | Dazzle

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