It is amazing to me how much being “in” can matter when it comes to price. I truly love cuprian tourmaline, but only stones with higher quality colors should warrant a big differential in price. (in my opinion) When I got the rough for this standard round brilliant that is peppered with little inclusions, I had difficulty in seeing any indications of it being copper bearing. After finishing the stone, I can see just a hint of purple, but that along with my spectrometer says copper. So it joins the dots of color as a uniquely timid example of the influence of copper on a lightly toned pink. The cute round weighs .41 carats.
Bruce
About Bruce Fry
I was born in Summit, NJ in 1947 and graduated from Summit High School in 1966. I graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1970 and after spending another year in graduate school, I left to see the world of Brazil. After spending some more time discovering myself, I ended up working for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 32 years as an Air Quality Engineer in the Department of Environmental Protection. I retired in 2007 and took up faceting gemstones again after a long hiatus that reached back to my twenties. I had started cutting cabochons when I was 13 and bought my first faceting machine when I was 15, but ran out of money and time until I retired.
My great love in gemology is tourmaline and the collection presented here represents my effort to get as much beauty and variety in the colors of tourmaline as I can. I was particularly lucky in being able to get unheated cuprian tourmaline before copper was discovered in gem grade tourmaline from Mozambique.
