Sweet & Juicy Watermelon Tourmaline

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Watermelon tourmalines classically mimic the fruit, with their juicy fruit and rind; bright pink in the middle, green on the outside. However, they come in so many different colours, representing the full spectrum of tourmaline’s impressive colour range. In fact tourmaline’s original name was ‘turamali’ which means ‘mixed colours’. It’s quite simply one of my favourite stones, but maybe not the easiest to set; it’s not always easy to find pairs and the profiles are often very uneven and bockety.

Tourmaline grows in pegmatites – veins that run through rocks created by molten magma from volcanoes. As the magma cools, cracks form which fill with a solution of water and minerals such as iron, lithium or manganese. Over thousands of years, these turn into tourmaline crystals, and it is depending on which of these minerals is present that determines the colour. So how do you end up with more than one colour in the same stone? This happens when the trace elements change in concentration or composition during a crystal’s growth. This can result in a core of one colour and bands of different colours, or zones across the length of the crystal. A single tourmaline crystal can contain up to 15 different colours. Tourmaline is the birthstone for October and I always think that is so lucky, as you have such a huge choice of colours. It is said to be particularly beneficial to artists and those in creative fields.

Watermelon tourmaline lends itself wonderfully to carvings – in particular butterfly wings and leaves look great, but arguably the best way to display it is quite simply, in slices, to show off its saturated juiciness to full effect. Although it can be prong-set, I love to see these slices in bezels. I always think of India Mahon as the absolute queen of tourmaline, and I also especially love Sarah Walker’s classic settings below. I haven’t seen slices set like this very often and I really like it. Links and titles on each photo.