Pink has become one of the most popular colors in gemstones, and no gemstone offers as many choices in pink as tourmaline. You can find every possible shade of pink in tourmaline, including unusual bi-color and tri-color pieces. If you're searching for a hot pink gem, you'll most likely find it in tourmaline.
Indeed, you'll also find soft pinks in every imaginable shade. Tourmaline is also one of the few pink gems that can be found in large sizes.
There are some outstanding pinks in sapphire, for example, but you would rarely find them in stones weighing more than one or two carats, and they tend to be rather expensive. Pink tourmaline can be found in gems weighing over 5 carats at affordable prices. Tourmaline is found in many places in the world. Particularly, it is one of the few gemstones for which the USA is famous. The first American discoveries were made in 1822 in the state of Maine. California became a large producer of tourmaline in the early 1900s. The Maine deposits tend to produce crystals that are raspberry pink-red as well as minty greens. The California deposits are known for bright pinks, as well as interesting bi-colors. During the early 1900s, Maine and California were the world's largest producers of gem-quality tourmaline. The Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi, the last Empress of China, loved pink tourmaline and bought large quantities of it from the Himalaya Mine, in San Diego County, California, for use as gemstones and carvings. Today most of our tourmaline supply comes from Africa, particularly Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria and Tanzania. Tourmaline is a silicate compounded with aluminum, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium or potassium. It is actually a family of related species with slightly different chemical compositions. Tourmaline has a good hardness level of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale.It is also extremely durable, due to its indistinct cleavage. The best tourmaline displays excellent transparency and a vitreous luster. Additionally, because of its tremendous color variation and pleochroism, almost every piece of tourmaline is quite unique. The item "VINTAGE ESTATE 14K GOLD TOURMALINE BLUE & WHITE DIAMOND RING DESIGNER SIGNED NH" is in sale since Saturday, September 15, 2018.
This item is in the category "Jewelry & Watches\Fine Jewelry\Fine Rings\Gemstone". The seller is "4744366" and is located in Andover, Massachusetts. This item can be shipped to North, South, or Latin America, all countries in Europe, all countries in continental Asia, Australia.