Tourmaline: a versatile elegance

Tourmaline: a versatile elegance

Tourmaline is undeniably beautiful, and well known for its timeless grace throughout the jewellery world. Tourmaline is considered to be the most multi-coloured mineral group, exhibiting a wide variety of captivating colours—from deep greens, soft pinks, and exquisite reds, Tourmaline often displays two or more colours when exposed to different light conditions. Tourmaline in jewellery becomes the piece that adapts to its surroundings with you; appearing one way in the daytime, it blossoms again at night, revealing a full array of colour collections. Incredibly, no tourmaline gemstones hold the same variation of hues, making any tourmaline jewellery design unique.

So unique, in fact, that St Edward’s crown, used in coronation ceremonies for British royalty, exhibits a spectacular sum of 27 tourmalines around the circumference of its solid gold frame. As well as being the birthstone of October, Tourmaline is mineral a collection that invites positive energies to its wearer.

The cause of tourmaline’s majesty of colours differs with each piece. Tourmaline with a richer iron content can range from deep blues to warm browns, while tourmaline with a higher magnesium content often produces brilliant yellows. Tourmaline with high lithium content, however, can create nearly any colour variation imaginable; from mellow pinks to vibrants reds, vivid greens to highly-prized neon blues, tourmaline is famous for its unique yet consistent beauty within a jewellery piece. As a multi-coloured mineral group, tourmaline is commonly found presenting two to three colours depending on its content and fluid chemistry during crystallisation. The three classic and closely related minerals that make tourmaline a distinctive beauty are elbaite, rubellite, and dravite, owing to its range of colours. Dravite tourmaline is most often the cause of its sparkling browns, while elbaite and schorl describe its luscious green and rosy pink varieties.

Tourmaline ranks 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs’ scale, and is considered fair in terms of its toughness, making it the perfect versatile piece for any handcrafted design.