interesting tourmaline

[hay joe]

What do you think about it?

 

[hay joe]

pic#2

 

[RockHugger]

Very wierd....I wonder if its photoshoped..? Either that or its prolly a really really dark stone.

 

[jstarfireb]

I have a tourmaline that''s dark in the center with a similar pattern. I''m just hazarding a guess, but it may be a stone with a closed C axis...? I don''t know exactly what this means, but I do know it can make the center of a brilliant cut tourmaline look dark.

 

[fierypyropixy]

Date: 12/1/2009 8:15:41 PM
Author: jstarfireb
I have a tourmaline that''s dark in the center with a similar pattern. I''m just hazarding a guess, but it may be a stone with a closed C axis...? I don''t know exactly what this means, but I do know it can make the center of a brilliant cut tourmaline look dark.

Yep, that''s what it is . . . I think that''s the one that''s been on PT''s site for a while for demonstration.

 

[T L]

The faceting pattern is such that it shows a very extinct ring around the table (crown). Other than that, the color reminds me a little bit of your avatar..

 

[FrekeChild]

Interesting indeed. Agreed with TL and that it looks to have a window.

 

[chrono]

I’m wondering if it was cut deliberately like this to show several different properties such as the flower pattern in the middle through the table and the dark ring around the middle to contrast with the inner and outer portions of the stone? It’s interesting but not something I personally will get as I don’t think it shows off the stone at its best.

 

[lelser]

Date: 12/2/2009 8:26:34 AM
Author: Chrono

I’m wondering if it was cut deliberately like this to show several different properties such as the flower pattern in the middle through the table and the dark ring around the middle to contrast with the inner and outer portions of the stone? It’s interesting but not something I personally will get as I don’t think it shows off the stone at its best.

One of the things I try to do with gems (and I know PT does as well) is make the best possible thing out of the rock before me.

This isn''t a closed C axis - those are very black - but it does look like there is a distinctly browner colour looking and a greener one on the different axes. If the rough is a long crystal, I would try to cut it as an opposed bar with steep ends to keep the brown out. If it''s a nodule, then I''d do exactly what PT did.

Cheers,

Lisa

 

[Stone Hunter]

For me personally the stone has too much brown mixed in with the green. And I think it would be even darker than it shows in the picture. It has an interesting cut but the color just doesn''t speak to me.

Yes stones do speak to me...

 

[ptorraca]

One of my friends pointed this thread out to me, so I thought I''d pop in and explain a bit. First, yes the stone and pictures are mine. The two above are from a series of three that appear somewhere deep in my Flickr photostream.

I cut the stone from a nicely formed nodule of tourmaline which was an attractive olive-green on the A/B axis and brown on the C axis. As Lisa mentioned above, the best yield for the piece demanded I cut it on the predominantly brown side of the stone. It is a study piece; an illustration in how color works in tourmaline. The images of this stone are especially useful in illustrating why shape is a major consideration when cutting tourmaline.

For example, I once had a request for an indicolite tourmaline asscher. Indicolite almost always comes with a "closed C" or black on the C axis. If I were to cut a blue indicolite with a closed C axis into an asscher shape, the effect would be similar to this round -- there would be blue strongly shaded, if not completely overshadowed, by black. Thus, one usually only sees indicolites and similar tourmalines cut in longer rectangular shapes; shapes which allow for the black to be minimized.

But sometimes the two colors of a tourmaline work in our favor -- I love cutting the ones with a rich pink on the C axis and a light peachy/apricot on the A/B axis. The peachy/apricot color lightens the tone of the deep pink to make for one really pretty stone.

peter

 

[lelser]

Date: 12/2/2009 1:05:24 PM
Author: ptorraca



But sometimes the two colors of a tourmaline work in our favor -- I love cutting the ones with a rich pink on the C axis and a light peachy/apricot on the A/B axis. The peachy/apricot color lightens the tone of the deep pink to make for one really pretty stone.


peter

Indeed! One of my favs as well.

 

[jewelz617]

You know... I like it. It''s different, something not seen every day. It might not be everyone''s aesthetic, but it''s alluring.

 

[hay joe]

Just looking at tourmalines I ran across two more

 

[hay joe]

the other one

 

[beaujolais]

I adore Peter Torraca cuts. Some are classically cut & exceptionally cut. But sometimes he''s brave enough to be different. This is a good thing.