This smaller standard round brilliant is a great blue. It is eye clean and weighs 1.54 carats. It comes from Namibia.
I think that Namibia should be declared a world treasure for the blue tourmaline (indicolite) it produces. It also produces other colors that I don’t want to put down, but blue is the name of the game for me. My principle problem with Namibian blue is that is it very expensive for what you get and almost impossible to get in larger sizes. Also there is a lot of heating going on, even before the tourmaline is cut, so some stones develop flaws that run. (I am speculating that heating cause the problem, but I have not run into the running with other tourmaline) This problem is pure torture. You’re trying to grind out a flaw, but as the facet gets bigger, the tourmaline propagates the flaw deeper into the stone. Aggressive grinding and quick stock removal is the only hope one has of saving the beautiful blue. You would not think that a smaller blue like this one would be fragile, but I have problems with developing flaws that don’t take long to flaw the diminutive stone.
This smaller standard round brilliant is a blue treasure. Its tone level, saturation and hue are right on the beauty mark. It could be a droplet, but others stand in line for that honor and this gemstone is perfect enough to stand on its own. This bright eye clean treasure weighs in at 1.54 carats.
Bruce
