Tourmaline

Tourmaline exists in a wider range of colors and color combinations than any other gemstone in nature.  Its name comes from the Sinhalese word turmali, meaning mixed.  Some of the most valuable types of tourmaline are Paraiba (electric blues and greens, famously “windex blue” due to copper), Indicolite (blue), Rubelite (red), and Chrome Tourmaline (intense green). Tourmaline may display multiple colors in the same gem (watermelon) or may exhibit pleochroism (different colors from different angles), or a cat’s eye effect called chatoyancy.  Ancient mystics believed tourmaline encouraged artistic intuition.  Tourmaline has a hardness of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale, and is durable for everyday wear.