Triphylite

Item Description

This stone gets its name from the Greek, words "tria", three, plus "phylon", family, because it was thought to contain three cations (Fe, Li, Mg). There have been crystals of Triphylite found in South Dakota up to 6 feet long! Most of those crystals are opaque and wouldn't be well suited for cutting gems. Brazil is one of the few places that produces gem quality Triphylite and this stone is a a very attractive gem for the material. It is a very slightly included and has a very pleasing almost dichroic appearance as it has an orange-amber color in one direction, but shows a greenish color along the "c" axis. The stone seems to do a bit of a color change in different sources of light (i.e., halogen, sunlight, incandescent, etc). It reminds me of Axinite stones that I've seen from Baha. The stone has a "Freeform" cut. Enjoy