This is your flash reporter from inside the tourmaline temple in Mars Pa.  The outside of this sacride  place looks much like any other small two story red house with a big front porch and a flat roofed dormer built in 192  ,but inside the emotions of hundreds of tourmaline have been raised fever pitch by the visiting prophet of tourmaline,  the most holy Reverent ‘Tourma. He started his present career in Elba off the coast of Italy and grown in status as he was discovered at many sites all over the world. Now if my hearing does not deceive me, I hear the most holy Reverent  Tourma preparing to give the most important sermon  for  the day.  The crowd realizes that  he is about to speak and it quiets with his call for attention and presence at the podium  We are now switching to our live mike in the podium, so that you can hear first hand the words  of the mighty prophet.,

You got to have  faith for the c axis  will deliver us.

 

Thank you, thank you for this wonderful reception.  I have spent many lonely cold nights wandering distant pegmatites in search of  lost  tourmaline that have strayed from the flock, but such a gathering as this make it all worthwhile. The intrinsic worth of every tourmaline that can take the vow of clarity and transparency is the subject of my sermon today.  I draw on the cutter’s most recent experience and disciple to present the lesson, that I have called You have to have faith for the c axis will deliver us. I must go back many years to a pocket surrounded by crystallizing rock and filled with the juices of creation.  In this  bit of heaven the nascent tourmaline  wee fathered in juices of splendid  purity.  Contemplation of the ultimate beauty of life was contaminated by vey few impure thoughts, which probably did not originate with any brethren, but the feldspars that pressed in on the chosen. Fortunately the pocket had enough room for at least some of the brethren to take the path of flawlessness and [purity  None of them knew of cared about the coming  demands of man and they slept. Nature and the greed of man unearthed and  selected the best of the lot to be set before the purveyors of tourmaline.  When presented they  flashed with all their  tourmaline power, but the response  was muted to their glory.  They did not understand and felt forsaken.  Only later did they realize that their purity had betrayed them, with the color of a  pale pastel orange. that drew notice only on their c axis. .With this failing they could not compete with the more fortunate in the eyes of man. They also had a very pale  coating over their pastel hearts that lead to questions about their ultimate stability, when put to the lap of life.  Finally a purvey of tourmaline with a soft spot for diversity of tourmaline, struck a deal and the pure disciples were presented to the world of cutters for  adoption.  Now  they did not have  great expectations for their ultimate end and they paled at the thought of  continuing rejection. Still where there is tourmaline there is hope and a cutter from Mars took one of them to heart and sent for her.

She was inspected upon arrival, but her time for creation had too wait. Oh the predigest nature of man.  Even the cutter, a true lover of the diversity of tourmaline, was drawn to the eye candy colors among us. It is not wrong to be drawn to the richly colored and famous in our world, but to ignore our vast variety is not the way of the true tourmaline lover.  Betrayal of the brethren that have been born into different kinds and degrees of color to an empty tourmaline heart.

The passing of a year in the life  of a tourmaline  crystal is trivial, but for the cutter it was demanding action.  More material that might have desaturated the cutter did not arrive and the cutter decided to preform/prepare the best of rest for cutting.  The one chosen for its wonderful story Was on of the first to be ground,  Its long thick body held the hope of a high weight retention and a significant size.  One half of of the flawless body failed to survive intact and was dispatched to the window sill of lost gems.  The good half began to show its stressed nature by cracking in the area separating the skin, outer edge of the crystal from the core Still its size engender hope and belief the springs from the heart of every faithful tourmaline. She,, much diminished, was put acid, but in clear sight of the cutter. .   Would she get another chance?  No, she was chosen and with another failure of the area between the coating and the core. Still the work  went on.  More facets were added to the emerald cut to bring life to the pale a/b axis body of the gem .The gems completion and extra work was all predicted on the cutter’s belief in the power of the c axis..

The hardest part of the belief in the power of the c axis is not being able to truly see its impact until the gem is completely finished.  It was the cutter’s experience, a long with his love for the colorful world of tourmaline, that carried him threw to a successful completion of a difficult gem..  I hope my sermon will ease a path foe your faith to bloom!

Any further comments from the reporter or the prophet were droned out by an eruption  of cheers from the charged up multitude..  The cutter smiles because a 9 by 7 mm emerald cut of pale peach, enriched by much darker peach ends ,(the expression of the beauty of the c axis). sits in a box to be shared.  Its seven rows of flat bright facets dance in any light . May the quest for beauty in tourmaline continue.

 

Bruce

 

 

 

 

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