Detailed information
Species
Elbaite, Tourmaline
Dimensions
75 x 30 x 26
mm
Locality
Barra de Salinas, Coronel Murta Jequitinhonha Valley Minas Gerais, Brazil
Condition
No recorded repairs
Simply looking at this specimen has brought me a broad smile of contented delight. Tourmaline never fails to please, but this crystal goes way beyond and gives you a warm inner glow much like the crystal itself. This specimen is from Barra de Salinas in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is a single yet composite crystal, built from a slightly outwardly divergent cluster of sub-parallel prisms giving multiple terminations around the prism faces and the main termination itself. Each individual prism is a mottled turbulent mix of leafy-lime-green, pale pear-green, creamy-lime cheesecake green and pale lemon-green, always with a short but distinct candy-pink to rich cranberry-red termination. This mix of more unusual colours combines to give a mottled spectrum throughout the crystal that is quite spectacular and bewitching. The top terminations are a complex group of intergrown pyramidal faces, all mirror bright and in ever-changing patches of cloudy pink, gemmy green and translucent cranberry. The prism faces possess a transparent skin under which an inner surface lustre and texture of vertically brushed silk resides. It is stunning.