Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
One that I cut the end off and hit with the 1500..actually this crystal and the one above i extracted from matrix..they were both completely encased in quartz with just the end barely peeking above the surface..took the ole' estwing to it...another pink center blue rind tourmaline 8.76ct.
Now this one was attached to a much larger piece of feldpar and quartz about 10 times a big as the chunk in the pic..I took the estwing to it and got rid of the quartz to just leave the feldspar..all you could see was a chunk/blob peeking through one side and just a little sliver peeking through on the opposite end of the feldspar...figured this puppy must go all the way through..then took my diamond picks and slowly worked away at the feldspar to completely free one side of the crystal..it's a blue tourmaline with pink center joined by a blue tourmaline with a green center
Here it is before prepping with feldspar pretty much covering the whole crystal
After prepping..as you can see much more of the crystal is exposed..have to be very careful as many paraiba tourmalines are not nice solid crystals..i had to leave the feldspr in certain places for aesthetic appeal and for structural integrity..especially in the natural fractures in the crystal.
some closeups..showing the pink, blue, and green
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
those are beautiful, amguy!! i kinda like the one of the tourmaline crystal in the feldspar-the before "prepping" pic, too, pretty cool!! and the pics are darn right killer after prepping, amguy!! i'm gonna say it->paraiba!!
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