Colors of Tourmaline

Thought to have been the captured colors of a rainbow by the Egyptians, tourmaline is one of the very few gemstone varieties that can exhibit every color known to man. This beautiful mineral group includes elbaite, rubellite, siberite, dravite, and tourmaline.

tourmaline dravite elbaite siberite rubellite

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Watermelon Tourmaline

Watermelon tourmaline is an interesting multi-colored elbaite variety.

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Colorless Tourmaline

Bi-color Tourmaline, untreated, 9.55x8.28mm oval mixed step 3.42ct

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Cat's Eye Tourmaline

The term cat's eye, or chatoyancy, is used to describe a phenomenal optical property in gemstones, in this case tourmaline.

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Dravite

Dravite is the dark yellow to brown variety of tourmaline.

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Bi-colored Elbaite

Bi-Color Tourmaline, 17.29x11.31mm emerald cut 12.58ct

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Elbaite

The tourmaline family consists of at least 14 distinct minerals, but the variety elbaite accounts for nearly all gem-quality tourmaline.

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Siberite

Purple Tourmaline, 14.8x11.2x10mm oval 11.29ct

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Rubellite

Tourmaline Rubellite, 21.78x18.59mm oval Portuguese cut 34.11ct

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Paraiba Tourmaline

When Paraiba tourmaline was first discovered in Brazil in the 1980's, the unusually intense "neon" or "electric" blues and greens set it apart from any other tourmaline previously known.