Fredos gems: TOURMALINE – PRETTY ORANGE BROWN DRAVITE, COLOURLESS ACHROITE,BLACK SCHORL AND CARVINGS

GEMS AND GEMOLOGY

Gemology has been a fascinating hobby of mine for over 20 years, reading up “Gemstones of the World” by Walter Schumann, attending practical classes on coloured gemstones, and visiting gem mining areas. I acquired some pieces, both priced and less well known, of various colours, shapes and cuts from gem-producing areas like Burma,Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia etc. These have since grown to quite a collection.

Among the 63 gems species are: traditional gemstones - corundum(sapphire,ruby), beryl (emerald,aquamarine), fancy diamond; and others - spinel, chrysoberyl(cat's eye,alexandrite), tanzanite, garnet(tsavorite, spessartite,), tourmaline(rubellite,indocolite), zircon, topaz, quartz(amethyst,citrine), chalcedony(agate,chrysoprase), feldspar(moonstone,labradorite), kyanite, peridot, kunsite, scapolite, flourite and many other lesser known gemstones. (view complete list on blog archive on the right with traditional gemstones at the bottom. click on types of interest to you.)

I'm now divesting my collection. An abbreviated description is provided below each photo, including price. Example 1: m2(size ref) tq(turquoise gem) ov(oval shape) plgnbl(pale greenish blue colour) afg ( Afghanistan country) 3.82 (carat weight) (18.7x8.5mm)(dimensions LxW) in mm) op (opaque clarity) 175 (USD 175 price) 10b30 N18(ref no and location). Example 2:"sa (type sapphire), ov(shape oval), dpbl(colour deep blue), af(origin Africa), 4.43(weight in carat), (11.3x10.2x4.6mm)dimension LxWxD, ec(clarity eyeclean), 1k(price US$1000)".

Personal viewing can be done for friends in Singapore.

Those outside Singapore, purchase can be secured via registered post upon payment in USD(or Singapore equivalent) via paypal, money/postal order, account transfer/cheque (Singapore) or other mutually agreed arrangement. Do have a look and contact me for any other details.

Happy viewing!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

TOURMALINE – PRETTY ORANGE BROWN DRAVITE, COLOURLESS ACHROITE,BLACK SCHORL AND CARVINGS

Tourmaline family refers to a number of related species and varieties with the same basic crystal structure. Their colour range from colourless, pink, red, yellow, brown, green, blue, violet, to common black and the delightful famous multi-coloured. The name comes from the Sinhalese Turamali, meaning ”stone with mixed colours.” Other locations are Russia, USA, Madagascar, Brazil and East Africa. It is also the birthstone for March. It is a beautiful and hard (7.5 MOH) stone, very suitable for jewellery.

Dravite is dark coloured (usually brown) , rich in magnesium. It is heated to lighten the colour to a more attractive orange or yellow brown. It shows strong dichroism ie two different colours (usually green and yellow)seen when viewed at different angles. The name is derived from the district of Drave in Austria.

g1 tou ov dphny 46.15(23x18.6x13.8)siu 1k 6b32 L21	l1 tou ov o pktt 9.03(13x10)ec 1k 2b22 T211
l1a tou em bno 8.29(15.5x12.4x7)c 085 2b23 N100	l2 tou tr o 7.42(12.4x12.3x7.5)c 08 2b21 N132
l2a tou em bno 7.13(12.6x8x7.1)c 075 2b23 N122	l3 tou pr chobnfl 6.67(13.7x12.4x6.3)ec 075 2b22 N142
l3a tou ov gny 6.40(12.5x10x6.9)c 07 2b21 N100	m1 tou ov o 4.68(10.6x9.1x6.9)c 05 2b25 N52
m1a tou em chbnfl 4.46(11.4x8x6)ec 06 2b23 N89	m1d tou ov bno 4.07(10.6x8.2x6.8)c 045 2b22 N50
m2 tou rn dkgfl 3.95(11.2x10.8x5.5)ec 05 2b N27	m2a tou em ofl 3.76(9.6x7.9x6.6)c 06 2b23 T160
m2b tou ov rdofl 3.51(10.5x8.4x6)ec 04 2b25 N30	m2d tou pr opk 3.35(10.2x9.3x5.3)ec 04 2b N53
m2e4 tou ov rdofl 3.21(9.8x8.4x5.7)c 04 2b25 N66	m3 tou ov bnofl 2.82(9.6x8.1x5.5)c 03 2b N25
m2e2 tou tr gbn 3.27(9.5x9.5x5.8)ec 03 2b M21	m2e5 tou pr bnofl 3.20(10.9x8.2x5.5)c 04 2b N43
m2f tou ra pkbn 3.15(8.3x8x5.8)ec 04 2b N61	m3a tou bg bno 2.73(8.8x7x4.7)ec 03 2b N20

Achroite – the white knight and Schorl – the black knight. This particularly a rare, colourless stone is a variety of elbaite, a member of the tourmaline group. It does not display strong dichroism, unlike other tourmalines. Some may be produced by applying heat to light pink tourmalines. Achroite is named after the Greek word achroos meaning without colour. Schorl is black iron-rich form of tourmaline and is very common. In Victorian times, it was widely used for morning jewellery.

h tou ov wh(gny) 12.07(15.4x12x8.8)c 1k 2b29 L206	ha tou em wh(gnpko) 11.18(13.7x10.5x9.1)c 09 2b29 M146
l1 tou bag wh(opk) 8.45(18.4x8.8x5.5)ec 08 2b30 M71	l1 tou em wh(ypk) 8.22(14.4x9.6x7)c 08 2b E156
m1 tou bg whpure br 4.89(11.7x8.1x5.7)ecu 07 2b60 T26	m2 tou ra whpure 3.51(7.7x7.4x6.1)c 05 2b29 T72
m2a tou ov wh(pk) 3.38(10.7x8.5x6.1)c 03 2b30 M50	m3 tou ov wh(pk) 2.93(9.1x8x5.8)ec 03 2b30 M48
m3a tou em wh(pk) 2.81(11.5x5.8x4.2)ec 03 2b30 M31	m4 tou ov wh(gn) 2.69(9.7x7.8x5.2)ec 03 2b29 M42
m4a1 tou bg wh(rsch) 2.58(8.4x7.3x4.8)cu 025 2b60 C19	m4a2 tou ov wh(pk) 2.56(9.3x7.8x5.2)ec 03 2b60 M51
m4a3 tou ov wh(bl) 2.55(10.1x8x4.5)c 04 2b60 N61	m4a4 tou ov wh(pkbl) 2.52(10.3x7.9x4.5)ec 03 2b60 M47
m6 tou ov wh(pkbl) 2.09(8.1x6.9x5.3)vsi 02 2b30 N23	s1 tou ra whpure 1.93(7.5x4.3)c 05 2b29 T112
s1a tou ov wh(pk) 1.59(8.6x6.4x4)c 015 2b60 C21	s tou em wh(pk) tprt 1.0(6.7x4.9x3.6)c 01 2b60N10
h2 tou em bk 16.28(20.4x11.2x7.8)ecu 1k 6b15 L100	h2 tou em bk 16.28(20.4x11.2x7.8)ecu 1k 6b15 L100

Tourmaline carvings – pretty and artistic

g tou bud pppk 31.40(22x20x15)tcc 05 dbL88	l1a tou bud pk 8.92 c 05 7b10 N110
h2 bi-tou lf rdpk-gn pr 16.98(22x10x4.2)si 085 7b17 N70	m2 bi-tou wm pk-gn 3.77(13.6x11.6x2.6)tc 03 7b19 N27
l2 bi-tou lf pk-gn 7.72(21x10.2x3.9)vsi 04 7b19 T49	h2 tri-tou lf gn-slpk-rdpk pr15.15(19.4x6x3.3) 075 7b16 N62
h tou ov shrimp rdpk 11.24(16.2x14.1x8.6)tp 05 7b16 N25	m1 tri-tou fs pk-gn-bn 4.46vsi 035 7b20 N68
l1 tri-tou flw grn-brn-pk 9.51(15.1x14.5x4.3)si 03 7b19 M35	m6 bi-tou lf gn-pk 2.15(14.8x10x2.4)si 02 7b20 N40
m5 tou lf pk 2.32(13.8x8.5x2.9)c 03 7b20 N52	m2 tou lf pk 3.40(10.5x8.5x3.3)ec 03 7b20 N52