THE BRAZILIAN CONNECTION - Gemstones & Gemstone Jewelry

RUBELLITE TOURMALINE GEMSTONES

Tourmaline is one of the most colorful members of the gemstone family, sometimes with alternating colors in the same gem.  The most common colors are pinks, reds and greens (verdite) however blues (indicolite) and other shades are extremely popular.  Tourmaline is a very good wearing gemstone with a hardness of 7 to 7.5 on the mohs scale.  The refractive index is 1.62 to 1.68 and the crystal system is trigonal.  More information on the history and lore of tourmaline is here. The majority of our tourmaline gemstones are mined in Brazil and Africa. Tourmaline crystal slices, rubellite (red), paraiba and watermelon (bi-color) tourmaline have links to their separate pages at the bottom of this page. On this page we will list only the true red "rubellite" variety.

Rubellites are not merely red tourmalines. There is an important criterion for this especially beautiful gemstone, and that is the way its color behaves in daylight and artificial light. Many gemstones change their color depending on the light source. A true rubellite does not. It shines just as intensely in artificial light as it does in daylight. The color of most other pink or red tourmalines, by contrast, displays a more or less clearly visible tinge of brown in artificial light.  

While colored gemstones in good qualities should as a rule be as free of inclusions as possible, they are looked upon with some favor in the case of the rubellite: indeed it is inclusions that render this stone really interesting from the point of view of the connoisseur. Having said that, they should be subtle, and they must not upset the way in which the light passes through this magnificent gemstone, for that could make it look cloudy or opaque. Nevertheless, a rubellite with only a few fine inclusions is of course more valuable than one with inclusions which are clearly visible.   Rubellites are mainly found in Brazil, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria and  Pakistan. The following Rubellite Gemstones are in stock. Finished tourmaline jewelry can be viewed here.

NOTE: Any gemstone with the suffix "A" following the stock number is a custom cut gem still in the possession of the gem cutter and will require 2-3 days extra time to ship.

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RUBELLITE GEMSTONES by SHAPE

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