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Category Archives: Bi-Color
A Cool Bi-Color Pear Shaped Tourmaline.
In my last package of rough from Africa there was a very well worn, blocky piece of what appeared to be a medium light spice green tourmaline. Upon a closer look it turn out to be a bi color with … Continue reading
Posted in Achroite, Bi-Color, Cutting Tourmaline
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Bi Color stability aways a question.
I just finished a darker blue/medium blue that came threw like a champ. It is only 5mm wide and about twice that in length. I had to cut down a much longer crystal to just get the area of the … Continue reading
Mixing yellow and pink for a peach oval.#287
This oval has a tender balance of color that I like to call dynamic. Depending on the light some tourmalines certainly shift and even change color. I think that it has not gotten the big play that Alexandrite gets is … Continue reading
Great blue pink bicolor from Afghanistan.#947
This emerald cut is a beautiful gemstone. It has a body that is a little over half pink with the remainder blue. Both pastel colors have a great medium light tone value. It appears to be eye clean and of … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Etc.
Tagged afghan, bicolor, blue, emerald cut, outstanding, pastel, pink
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A yellow green bi color that appears to be eye clean, emerald cut.#450
I love this stone. It is a wonderfully subtle, but effective mixture of about 2/3 medium toned green and 1/3 quite pale yellow. It is as bright as an emerald cut can be with superior crystal and the complete lack … Continue reading
Pale pink oval with frisky yellowish spot.#1188
This rough for this gemstone is from Nigeria and I have seen quite a bit of it. The body is a nice pink, but some faces of the crystal have a yellowish green layer on them that appears to have … Continue reading
Really a tourmaline? Purple green bicolor, round.#1168
First of all, cutting a round out of a bicolor is not the “normal” way of bring the best out it. But the rough was unbalanced and so stubby that to cut an emerald cut would not show the colors … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Etc.
Tagged bicolor, green, horizontal split mains, purple, unique
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Exceptional Rubellite Unique to the Collection Round.#1162
Deeply cut bicolor, colorless crown, red pavilion, 6.60 carats. Nice longer ratio emerald cut with bright red c axis, 4.51 carats This is a GEM, an exceptional gemstone. It has everything including a secret. But first a question. How do … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Etc., Rubellite
Tagged colorless, horizontal split mains, outstanding, red, rubellite
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Pink center and blue ends makes a different oval.#1160
A unique gemstone in this collection must have a interesting story. I cut away a good part of this oval’s story, when I preformed this oval. It had been a rather flat section of a watermelon tourmaline with a pastel … Continue reading
Pure tourmaline magic, Blue capped pink bodied round.#1134
Blue cap round from face up. Blue cap round, more from the side. I set out to cut a different stone from a different piece of rough this time. Blue capped tourmaline crystals are some of the most beautiful and … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Cutting Tourmaline
Tagged bicolor, blue, cutting tourmaline, horizontal split mains, pink, unique
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Add two thirds pink and one third gray together and you get a nice bicolor.#1129
This emerald cut is pure tourmaline in its bicolor nature. About two thirds of the length of the long ratio emerald cut is a nicely saturated, medium toned pink and the rest is a balancing patch of gray. It makes … Continue reading
Pink culet and the rest green makes great mixing for a round. Nigeria #98
This is both an interesting and beautiful gemstone. The standard round brilliant is a great cut to mix up colors and this gemstone has great ones to mix. Both the pink culet and green crown rather disappear when the stone … Continue reading
Larger Nigeria pink green mixed to orangy, round #97
This standard round brilliant is big enough to really see the mixing of green and pink into yellow and oranges that happens in this interesting stone. The mixing certainly depends on the light and you can still see the pink/ … Continue reading
What you see face up is not what you have green/pink round.#96
I have gotten more than a few pieces of this interesting rough from Nigeria over the years. It is really a pink crystal that has some faces that look they had a chomophore (trace element that effects color) diffused into … Continue reading
A long, long ratio, IceT flavored pastel punch of a bicolor emerald cut. #90
For me the cutting of a long ratio (length to width) ratio is an effort to keep the long narrow rectangular facets square. Actually it is in the polishing, rather than the cutting, that causes my problems, Generally I only … Continue reading
Beautiful tricolor, pastel blue green, colorless, pink emerald cut. Afghan #80
This is a beautiful gemstone and the largest of the three examples I got threw a dealer that had direct connections with Afghanistan. He was also a cutter, but had found them too fragile for his heavy hand. I was … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color
Tagged afghan, bicolor, blue, colorless, emerald cut, green, pastel, tri-color
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A Blue/Pink/Gray colored mess of a standard round brilliant. #77
My father use to tell me one of his few stories about his college days, that centered on making tuity fruity ice cream, over again many times. He always smiled and it was good that he had at least one … Continue reading
A beautiful tricolor, blue green, colorless, pink, emerald cut. Afghanistan. #70
This is a beautiful gemstone. I was given the opportunity to buy this tricolor rough because it is fragile like many bi and tri color tourmaline. I was successful in cutting this long ratio emerald cut, but it needed to … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Etc.
Tagged afghan, bicolor, blue, colorless, emerald cut, green, tri-color
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Unique faceted watermelon pink center, green rind, emerald cut. #69
Everyone seems to love watermelon tourmaline,(a crystal with a pink core that runs down the long axis of Elbaite tourmaline that is coated with a green rind.), but it is rare that this distribution of color is useful to the … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Etc.
Tagged bicolor, emerald cut, outstanding, unique, watermelon
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Pastel green pink bicolor from Brazilian “salad”. #59
I read somewhere that Brazil, the homeland of tourmaline for many years was not producing much quality material anymore. But it was producing what they cal “salad” which are native cut gemstones in mostly included tourmaline. Sometimes it is just … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Cutting Tourmaline
Tagged bicolor, Brazil, cutting tourmaline, emerald cut, green, pastel, pink
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Slight bicolor with a few marks blue to green emerald cut.#396
This medium light toned emerald cut slides around between green and bluer green depending on the light. It has excellent transparency except for a few marks scattered in the stone. The most important is on a corner of the table … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Indicolite
Tagged bicolor, blue, emerald cut, green, non-dichroic
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Bright very pale bicolor for the IceT group, an emerald cut.#792
Of all the pieces in the lot of bicolors from Afghanistan, this is only the second piece that stayed together and could be cut. I can easily see the faint pink colored, side and I know there is a little … Continue reading
Magnificent bicolor with yellow crown and rust culet, orange round. Del Delgato#791
I have put together a general post about Del Gado and other sources of rough that peaked at different times in my time of collection building. Still it should be said here that Del Gado, which is the most northern … Continue reading
A bicolor of rust and cream emerald cut#547
This is really nice gemstone. It is about fifty percent rust color and fifty percent cream. Since the rust color travels down the long axis and colors the cream end, the stone is dominated by rust, but you can still … Continue reading
Smaller round with rind of blue and a heart of pink.#528
I purchased the rough for this standard round tourmaline as a bit of cuprian color, but my spectrometer said no copper. It is still interesting, even if it has moderate inclusion that inhibit the flash. They are at least spread … Continue reading
A heavily included experiment in the round.#510
The standard round brilliant that is heavily included was just an experiment. I had purchased some Brazilian “salad”(low grade faceted gemstones) to try and see if I could get something different.(I did get a couple of grayed purples that are … Continue reading
A large fantastic graded pink emerald cut.#712
Some gemstones are so easy to write about. I can not say enough about this absolutely beautiful pastel pink emerald cut. Its tone level grades from a pale pink to a very nice medium pastel pink with a saturation (purity … Continue reading
Darker bicolor emerald cut of pink and brown.
Before I was able to buy cuprian material from Mozambique, my opportunities to buy purple tourmaline had been severally limited. My hope to buy blue purple had been fruitless. I wished that I had been active when Paraiba was affordable … Continue reading
A slight bicolor with a peach end and a colorless end emerald cut.
You could call this emerald cut a graded color gems, but I prefer to call it a bicolor with an orange end and a colorless end. The darker, but still moderate pastel, reflects down the long axis of the emerald … Continue reading
Old #44 is a large peach oval with a heart of green.
This oval is one of the first larger tourmalines I cut and I even remember the listed sale number it had (44). The rough was advertised to have peach and green, which can make an undesirable mixture. I think that … Continue reading
Lightly toned Afghan green with touch of pink center, round
This combination of a pale pastel green and pink is a classic and distinctive one from Afghanistan. Many times the green rind on the rough, that had a watermelon color distribution, is not thick enough to be retained with the … Continue reading
Green and Pink make yellow all in pastel, round
This is another example of a tricky tourmaline from Nigeria. It is really a combination of pink and green that is mixed by the standard round brilliant into almost a completely uniform blend, that produces a creamy yellow. There is … Continue reading
Big and Bright and Brassy, Yellow Green Emerald Cut.
Here is a live one. This large extremely bright yellow green without any dark tones, emerald cut will not calm down. I personally think that yellow greens are some of the brightest tourmalines out there. Whether it is to do … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Verdelite
Tagged bi-color, emerald cut, green, verdelite, yellow-green
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The IceTs have been waiting for this pale bi-color emerald cut.
This long ratio emerald cut has a very soft pastel tone level. Yet you can still see the difference between the one half of the gem that is pink while the other half is cream. It is eye clean and … Continue reading
A sophisticated cream/pink bicolor emerald cut
This eye clean bicolor is a beautiful smaller emerald cut. The hot, medium toned pink is a little over one half of the length of the stone, while a cream color fills up the rest. There does not appear to … Continue reading
Beige on a different axis with a secret, oval.#1045
Thank goodness I just followed my own advice. Face up I am looking at a rather paler stone with a darker middle and light pastel ends. This means that the c axis which usually goes down the long axis … Continue reading
How long I have waited pink/champagne/green tri-color#1010
Now I love tri and bi and watermelon and completely mixed up tourmaline, but they are not the main thrust of the collection. Color in all its diversity is center stage, yet chances do come along and I have … Continue reading
Red/Blue makes Mauve droplet of color#1004
This is a peculiar droplet of color from Nigeria. I have red/blue on the back of the box and I know that they were the colors in the rough. I must have seen them when I wrote the sticker, … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Droplets of Color
Tagged blue, droplet-of-color, mauve, purple, red
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Nigerian Pink Edged in Yellow Green Round#987
This larger round is mostly a medium light pastel pink. The yellow green on the side of girdle is pretty isolated and only really effects the body (green and pink make yellow)of the stone when you peer threw that … Continue reading
Nigerian pink-green makes yellow round#983
The piece of rough that became this standard round brilliant came from the giant find of tourmaline in Nigeria over 20 years ago. The overall appearance of the round is that of a yellow, but it is easy to … Continue reading
A Great Fake Peach Round
True or False. Pink and green light mixed together with the right level of tone makes YELLOW. True and the story goes on. In the tray this large round with a pavilion consisting of eight split mains and … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Cutting Tourmaline, Pink
Tagged bi-color, green, Nigeria, peach, pink, unique
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baby blue and baby pink bi-color from Afghanistan#946
When I received this semi- preformed piece of rough in the mail, with other bi-colors from Afghanistan, I thought it was too go to be true. It also had a decent price. Now this rarely happens and it makes … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color
Tagged afghan, baby blue, baby pink, bi-color, blue, emerald cut, pastel, pink
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Stately emerald cut of defusing pink.#938
When the rough for this beautiful tourmaline came in, it left no doubt about what kind of gemstone needed to be cut. The whole gemstone is pink, but its tone grades from medium dark to a paler pastel as … Continue reading
Afghan pink/blue pastels a broken embrace
For a while I was able to deal with a source of tourmaline rough that had a direct connection for Afghanistan material. I not only bought individual stones, as I usually do, but also a few lots. The … Continue reading
Uniquely oriented watermelon emerald cut
This smaller emerald cut looks like it consists of bands of bluish green on either side of a pinker band running the length of the emerald cut, where the ends have a much more intense pink color. Except for … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Etc.
Tagged bi-color, blue, emerald cut, pink, unique, watermelon
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Anyone for ice T, Almost colorless bi-color
Very pale to moderately toned tourmaline is not rare from Afghanistan. Much of the material is not flawless, but its “crystal quality” transparency is usually excellent. The emerald cut was cut from the largest and cleanest piece of … Continue reading
Bi-color emerald cut with a secret
I love this gemstone. It has a lot going for it. It is well over 5 carats and flawless. The balance of the two colors in the emerald cut is good and the demarcation between the colors is crisp. … Continue reading
A face-up beige with a split personality.
Watermelon is a great term for describing a classic color distribution in tourmaline. The most famous combination of colors is pink/red in the center with a pale color band separating it from a green skin, but it comes in … Continue reading
Posted in Bi-Color, Cutting Tourmaline, Etc., Yellow
Tagged beige, bi-color, emerald cut, unique, watermelon
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