Watermelon Tourmaline (polished slice)

Item Description

While Tourmaline is a diverse and highly colorful gem, it also has the added advantage of not just being cut into faceted stones, or even carvings. This is because some crystals aren't clean enough to cut fine gems, but they're still gemmy enough that they can be sliced and polished to show off the beautiful color of the material. One of the favorites of many collectors are "watermelon" Tourmaline (green and pink) slices. When Tourmaline is sliced and polished like this, it gives the collector a great opportunity to see the unique way in which these crystals grow and change in color as they form in the pocket. As you can see, this very gemmy slice has a lovely pink core surrounded by a green rind on the outside edge. The slice is complete all around, no broken edges. It's a beautiful piece for display, jewelry (wire-wrapping?) or whatever you wish.
This slice is from Madagascar, where some of the best polychrome slices have been coming out for decades.