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Category Archives: Dravite
An Oval by the Numbers
It has been a bit, but I finished a tourmaline gemstone today that is worth commenting about. The rough was a pretty average piece of dichroic brownish gold that had be reduced significantly to eliminate a major flaw. And I … Continue reading
Posted in Cutting Tourmaline, Dravite, Polishing Tourmaline
Tagged cutting tourmaline, dichroic, dravite, gold, golden-brown, oval, polishing tourmaline
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Dissecting a Dravite Hot Off the Lap.
I am continually amazed by the variety of dynamic colors in tourmaline. And shifts in color than can make a less desirable color in gemstone still blaze with a unique statement. And a unique tourmaline certainly gets my attention. The … Continue reading
Posted in Cutting Tourmaline, Dravite, Orange
Tagged brown, brown-orange, cutting tourmaline, dichroic, dravite, mahogany, orange
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Golden eye in an Orange Circle of Flash
It is always nice to get a delightful surprise and when it turns out to be a great new tourmaline, than that merits a post of progress with the collection. The piece of rough I gotten from a friend did … Continue reading
Posted in Cutting Tourmaline, Dravite, Orange
Tagged cutting tourmaline, dravite, orange
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I wouldn’t call this anything, but mahogany or maybe golden brown, oval#299
Brown was suppose to be brown and then I got into mahogany. Now I am seeing storage boxes with golden brown on the back and I see the most wonder rich sultry mahogany under my yellowish florescent light. I check … Continue reading
A medium tone level brown to brownish orange oval.#298
This oval has a normal depth and lighter medium tone level than most of the dravites in this tray. It goes more orange brown from brown in my yellowish light, but it doesn’t reach beyond a rather watery presences. It … Continue reading
Golden brown to brownish orange either way it is still beautiful. oval#297
This long ratio oval is cut as shallow as the pavilion can be made with good optics and with a respectable crown. Its color slides around brown and can be golden or quite orange, but still a dravite. It appears … Continue reading
Posted in Dravite, Orange
Tagged brown-orange, dravite, golden-brown, orange, orange-brown
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A tourmaline for those who like chocolate diamonds, oval#288
Now I haven’t looked at a large number of “chocolate” diamonds, but this dark flash driven golden brown beauty seems to fill the bill for me. The oval appears to be eye clean and with its table, cut perpendicular to … Continue reading
Brown did you hear me, I said brown, but not dull, oval.#279
I think this good sized oval is one of only two gemstones in the collection that deserves to be just called brown. It is obviously dichroic with its table being cut perpendicular to the principle axis (c). The a/b axis … Continue reading
A bit of a brown shade on this richer golden oval.#269
This golden oval is a rich medium color with a wash or two of brown on it. Still it is not dominated by brown, but I would call it a dravite. It appears to be eye clean and with fine … Continue reading
Brown, long ratio oval, table perpendicular to principle axis. cuprain #268
I like this oval’s color. It is the closest to a pure brown in the collection. I does approach brown from the yellow side, but it has no pretenses of having a fancy name. It has a nice even color, … Continue reading
Posted in Cuprian Tourmaline, Dravite, Etc., Orange
Tagged brown-orange, cuprian, dravite, orange, oval, unique
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Golden brown shaded with orange oval.#258
This oval has a flatter crown and a nice open look. Looking into it gives a fine flashy view that appears to be eye clean. There is enough red in the golden brown that it drifts toward orange, which probably … Continue reading
Gold to Green color changer, Dravite the species oval.#300
In my opinion this is a true color changer. I have run into a few on the inter net, but this is the only one in the collection. I did not realize that I had a another type of color … Continue reading
Mahogany, brown orange, droplet of color.#940
Now what is in a name. Too much I am afraid. This standard round brilliant is a pretty gemstone. It appears to be eye clean and has fine crystal. Its medium dark tone value still permits the stone to be … Continue reading
Posted in Dravite, Droplets of Color, Orange
Tagged brown-orange, dravite, droplet-of-color, mahogany
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Usambara effect, chrome chromophore, green emerald cut.#420
I will be posting more on the usambara effect in tourmaline, but I will focus more on this specific gemstone in this post. It is always a pleasure to discover something new about tourmaline and then to discover something unexpected … Continue reading
Posted in Dravite, Etc.
Tagged chrome, dravite, emerald cut, green, umbasara, unique
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Smallest round in the collection and a green dot of color.#109
This is as low as I have ever cut a small gemstone. This standard round brilliant only weighs .11 carats, but it is a chrome tourmaline and probably has as good a green as there is in the collection. If … Continue reading
A pink to orange, but mostly brown, sliding round.#78
Not all browns are created equality and many dealers probably don’t care because once a stone is dominated by brown it becomes a vile creature. It is called dravite, a name that sounds vaguely like an ancient language and left … Continue reading
A golden ray of color for a color dot#759
This smaller round brilliant is a bright golden dot of color. It is bright and sparkling and weighs .31 carats. Bruce
A brown descent into orange wood, mahogany,round.#543
When I looked at the back of this standard round brilliant to look for flaws I was somewhat frustrated by my past cutting behavior. There was a white inclusion about one third of the way up from the pavilion and … Continue reading
A great brown with a different twist, emerald cut.#531
If you look closely at many tourmaline browns, what do you see. An orange that is just not saturated (purity of color) enough to present its orange face cleanly and brightly to the world. But the posted gemstone, which is … Continue reading
Dravite, just not enough satuation to keep this Orange without Brown, Oval#511
This oval has a good size, fine crystal and is probably eye clean, but gets very little respect because its saturation (purity of color) is not high enough to scare away the brown. This problem is shared with many other … Continue reading
Golden Brown Honey for the Droplet of Color#727
This standard round brilliant is a sweet treat for the droplets of color. A brown overtone maybe a liability for some gemstones, but not for the pretty piece. It is only a touch of honey brown and that makes the … Continue reading
Posted in Dravite, Droplets of Color
Tagged brown, droplet-of-color, golden-brown, honey
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Fascinating green to golden brown color changing oval.#300
This tourmaline is unique in the collection. It is a color changer from golden brown in incandescent light and green in daylight. Neither color really grabs you, but the color change is hard to miss. I looked at the stone … Continue reading
Dark toned and flash driven golden/orange brown oval
This bigger oval is reaching the limit, set by its darker tone, in size that an effective oval can be cut. It is dark, but from its depths still come bright flashes of golden orange. Dichroism does not appear to … Continue reading
Dichroic orange brown oval
This oval was cut with the darker dichroic color on the side of the oval and the paler orange brown in the ends. If it works with the piece of rough, it is a good way to get a reasonable … Continue reading
Orange Brown to Golden Brown like Buckwheat Honey, oval
This sweet gemstone is dichroic with the darker golden to orange brown in the ends of the longer ratio oval. The stones tone level is medium dark and it color is mainly flash driven. It is eye clean with excellent … Continue reading
A golden oval that rests in brown.#290
This modest gemstone has a nice golden flash, but is darken by brown when the flash passes. It is moderately dichroic with darker tones of gold in the ends of the oval. It appears to be eye clean and with … Continue reading
An incredibly dichroic mahogany oval#289
I have been waiting to post about this longer ratio, deeply cut oval. Face up the dravite, a trade name for brown tourmaline, looks like many of the brown gems I have posted about, with the possible exception that its … Continue reading
A brown has come around, again, oval.#288
I smile when I wrote again in the title, because I like this stone and I wish that more browns would roll my way. But I haven’t seen any for years (2013). I am sure the rough came from East … Continue reading
A darker more robust brown oval#279
Little orange is left in this good sized brown oval. I would really reach for a name with this one and call it brown. It is dark, but still has a fine flash driven color, in a stone that is … Continue reading
Great Rich Golden Brown, just like Mom’s Gravy, oval#268
This is an exceptional piece of dravite (brownish tourmaline). It is cut with a “super nova” pavilion and a standard top, to conserve weight and get the most out of a brown, that is not dark or dense in any … Continue reading
A tale of two golden ovals.#260
This is #259 and is piece of bright golden eye candy This is #260 and is a dravite with golden flash. I am going to post one comment for both of the next two stones in the tray. My … Continue reading
Orange flash in a brown body, oval#258
The verdict is in, this is a traditional dravite, even if the flash has quite a good orange color. The oval has a nice medium tone level and appears to be eye clean with good crystal. But it can not … Continue reading
A mahogany GEM flashes in the collection, emerald cut.
The composite color brown (a color not found in the rainbow that comes from mixing colors) does not get very much respect in the color stone world. I realize that might be changing with the development of a market for … Continue reading
Posted in Dravite, Orange
Tagged brown-orange, dravite, emerald cut, mahogany, non-dichroic, orange
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Dichroic medium toned brown, modified emerald cut.
In an attempt to use a cut that better blends the stones two dichroic colors, together I used a modified emerald cut. The cut does not demand as much depth to the gemstone as a Barion cushion and it is … Continue reading
Golden Reddish Brown Colored Emerald Cut.
This smaller emerald cut has a rich tone level that shows off its golden reddish brown color very well. The stone is dichroic, but the light a/b axis is at the ends rather than the normal arrangement of the c … Continue reading
Smaller amber to brown emerald cut.
This dravite, is a great amber to brown color and is not dichroic. This means that the color is uniform and the end bright and flashy. It appears to be eye clean with fine crystal. It came from East Africa … Continue reading
Smaller dichroic reddish brown emerald cut.
This dichroic emerald cut has rich reddish brown ends and moderate, browner sides. The sum of the colors produces what I like to call mahogany. The stone has a darker tone, but the mahogany is interesting in stronger light or … Continue reading
A orangish brown dravite from East Africa, emerald cut
Brown is not the most desirable color in gemstones, but some stones are so bright and feisty that even brown can not hold them back. This emerald cut is a representative of a group of dravites coming out of East … Continue reading
It is final, this is the best green, bar none, in the collection!
Now that is a big title for such a small stone, but it is true. This standard round brilliant only weighs .21 carats, but it is a chrome tourmaline and that means GREEN. Chrome is really a misnomer because it … Continue reading
Posted in Dravite, Droplets of Color, Etc.
Tagged chrome, dravite, droplet-of-color, green, outstanding
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Small Barion Cushion Cut Brown
One of my other hobbies is working in the garden and working in the garden to me is getting into dirt. The color, smell and feel of a rich topsoil can be very satisfying. So perhaps this is why I … Continue reading
Moderate Honey Brown Oval
How many brown gemstones have you ever seen? (I guess brown diamonds have become popular, but I hardly ever think about diamonds period.) And when a gemstone has a brownish cast to its red, orange or yellow body, heaters … Continue reading
Color droplet of pure green, chrome tourmaline
This small standard round brilliant is a pretty average size and color for a good chrome tourmaline. Its tone would be too dark for large pieces, but the green has great saturation. It absolutely loves yellow light and would put … Continue reading
But A Moment to See Chrome is Better
This chrome tourmaline is a different species (dravite) of tourmaline than Elbaite, which is the most common tourmaline made into gems. When just enough vanadium/chrome is found in dravite, you get an outstanding green. Unfortunately chrome tourmaline ‘s tone level … Continue reading
A different look darker “chrome” tourmaline#230
This gemstone is made of a different member of the tourmaline group than most of the gemstones in this collection. It is a vanadium/chrome (most of the time the vanadium dominates) colored Dravite, the species. Dravite has magnesium in it … Continue reading
Dravite in Stone, Oval#1090
This gemstone has a nice sharp crown with two steps. It body has good crystal and is eye clean. All great features for a stone that should step forward, but the desaturation of its orange color, that produces a brown … Continue reading
Orange Oval that is sure it is a tourmaline.#1059
All this orange tourmaline ever wanted to be was orange. It doesn’t go for brown outs and would never shift its gears and become a red. It is mildly dichroic at most. The icing on the cake is … Continue reading
Golden Brown Oval#1024
This tourmaline is dichroic with the darker drown in the ends, but they do not make the stone dark. I would call this a dravite, but it is golden and spicy and not a color drag at all. The … Continue reading
Large Dravite wins ugliest award#968
This large standard brilliant round weighs in at 23.4 carats, which makes it a heavy weight contender. It came to me preformed to be a round and I did not have any qualms about going with the shape. I … Continue reading
Dravite long ratio emerald cut
On the back of this box I have brown for the color of this beautiful emerald cut, That certainly lacks the flickering fire of inspiration that is need to sell tourmaline. We need a spice name for the long … Continue reading