Gem: Bi-Color Tourmaline
Weight: 7.67 ct.
Dimensions: 15.5 x 7.5 x 5.6 mm
Clarity: Eye Clean
Origin: Rubaya Mine, Democratic republic of Congo
Treatments: None, natural gemstone
Comments:
Here's another glorious combination of seafoam green / and butter yellow. If you've browsed my shop before, you know I have a thing for this color combination. I've never seen anything quite like it from any other mine in the world.
Technically, this gem is a terminated crystal, but the termination in this case is what's called a 'gem nodule' termination. These terminations look like breaks in the crystal on first glance, but really they are a bulbous, dome-like structure. It occurs in harder-than-usual- tourmalines, so I hear, but this could just be an urban legend.
This gem is incredibly open and bright, with a glowing, open C-axis.
This could be one large gem, or a yellow gem plus a bicolor gem. If it were my choice, I'd go for the two gems, since the length to width ratio is a little too long to really be cut in anything but a step-cut otherwise.
There is some very shallow surface dislocations, but they are so shallow that they probably won't be a factor in the finished gem, or possibly, even, might be gone after pre-forming.
Overall, this is a glorious gem, suitable for an important project.