I have just finished putting the collection back together after fifty of the stones were kept by the GIA for photographing. It is hoped that they will be included in a future spread in Gems and Gemology on the beauty of tourmaline and yours truly. The whole trip was an effort well worth it. I was able to meet some people that might be able to help spread the word about tourmaline’s beauty and I don’t just mean the excessive hype associated with cuprian/Paraiba tourmaline. My finest examples of cuprian tourmaline from Mozambique were very well received at the GIA. Their beauty is derived principally from copper and some of them resemble Paraiba material, but they don’t need to be associated with the hype of Paraiba to be beautiful. They have qualities, such as high clarity, larger size and color that frankly were rarely if ever displayed by material from Paraiba. (Paraiba did have a wide range of color, but most of it was heated to produce a limited range of blues.) They are not rip-offs nor should they be advertised or sold as anything else, but what they are. I try to keep my perspective when confronted with the prices requested for any cuprian/Paraiba tourmaline. My abiding hope is that the beauty of quality cuprian tourmaline from anywhere will support those high prices, but I fear that lower grades of cuprian/Paraiba tourmaline are not worth the price. Frankly you will not see any difference between the lower grades and tourmaline colored by other more common chromophores such as iron. I have seen it with my own eyes.
Bruce
