Gem: Iolite
Weight: 0.91 ct.
Dimensions: 6.1 x 6.1 mm
Clarity: Eye clean @ 10x
Cutting by: Scott Maier
Original design by: Marco Voltolini
Origin: Babati, Tanzania
Comments:
Iolite has been on my bucket list for quite some time, and I finally got around to cutting some recently. WOW! Why haven't I been cutting this gem all along??
It's a super affordable alternative to sapphire and tanzanite. Plus, it has the awesome bonus of being yellow/purple dichroic on it's crystal axes. This combo of colors provides fantastic contrast in the brilliance and pattern of the finished gem. As you can see in the pictures, the cut and orientation polarizes the colors into different areas, which move around and blend and separate as you move it around in-hand.
This gem is technically a square shape, but it could be coaxed into a setting for a round gem.