Gem: Bi-Color Tourmaline
Weight: 7.03 ct.
Dimensions: 15.3 x 7.6 x 6.5 mm
Clarity: Eye Clean
Origin: Rubaya Mine, DRC
Treatments: None, natural gemstone
Comments:
I love this color combination. It's a combo I've never seen from anywhere else, and so I have tried to buy this powerfully bright one-two punch whenever I have been able. I've got a small stash going, but the mine hasn't produced any tourmaline in the last year, let alone anything else as cool as this.
The yellow is a straight canary yellow - a pure and strong yellow color, free of pink or green. The blue end I have heard described as robins' egg blue, or seafoam green. Both fit quite well, but the real color is probably dead in between.
I'm selling it as facet rough because it's entirely clean, but it also happens to be a nearly complete whole crystal to boot; with a neat side-car crystal. The termination is what is called a 'gem nodule' termination. I've been told it is indicative of a harder-than-usual- crystal, but that could be urban legend. It is, however, a naturally occurring, NOT broken type of termination. These 'gem nodule' terminations tend to be characterized by bulging, bubble like domes. They do look as though they've been broken off there, but they are in fact natural, in-tact terminations.