About 10 years ago I hooked up with a goldsmith that would work with me and design original setting for some of my tourmalines. He put his time and gold into the setting and I put in my tourmaline. We sold threw a jewelery store that he worked for, along with some other location.
One of the first pieces he designed and fabricated was a very smooth gold ring that twisted around the base of the gemstone, which sat high above the finger. It beautifully set off one of the finest medium sized pieces of Afghanistan sea foam that I was lucky enough to get.
Setting tourmaline can be problematic and my goldsmith was quite pleased when he called late one night to say that the stone was set. Now the effort was started to find that special person who would and could afford to appreciate the ring. We sent it around the holiday vacation places like south east Maine and the Caribbean. Finely we hit gold and the ring, which remains one of the finest pieces jewelery to be blessed with one of my stones was sold.
Time passes, but I still retained a nice brilliant picture of the completed ring in my mind. Well it came in recently to be re-sized and fortunately, I never got to see it, because the stone had been heavily abraded. An then it finally cracked while the ring was being worked on. I heard that she wore it everyday and did everything while wearing it and I am pleased that she had that time with the ring. But if she would have saved it for special occasions and not work duty, the poor tourmaline would still be with us today.
I care a great deal about trying to get the best out of the rough tourmaline I am able to get. And it is not all about money. A truly exceptional piece of rough is a gift of great effort and rarity from the earth. It can not be duplicated at will by man and deserved not to be used as a consumable item. Given the proper care (I keep mine in boxes) a beautiful tourmaline can last indefinitely. I hope to do better,in the future, with finding homes for my limited number of exceptional tourmalines. Their beauty is worth the effort.
Bruce
