I hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday season. I usually have a choice specimen to cut over Christmas since it a pretty quiet time for me. But this year the rough stocking is empty. Credible reports have come in that the Chinese are purchasing all the rubellite in an establishment regardless of price, everything a mine produces is going to China except for a little that falls threw the cracks and my African dealer does not even return my emails.
So what is a cut/collector/love of tourmaline suppose to do. Well I purchased a powerful nut cracker and pounds of black walnuts/hickory nuts/butternuts and have been cracking since Thanksgiving. I am pushing to get an assortment of Christmas cookies together before I crack up.
That is not the only reason I have not posted for a while. I have been out on the road testing some jewelers interest in tourmaline. I really don’t think that many people are ready for the new world of pricing in tourmaline. And I am not willing to be too accommodating with even average tourmalines, when I have very little chance of getting anything to replace it.
It is a sad epitaph since I rather have exciting tourmaline to work on than a more valuable collection. Well, my wish for the New Year is that somewhere in the world a great deposit of tourmaline is discovered. Still I doubt that much will ever become available to the custom cutter again.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Bruce
