Tourmaline
A powerful detoxification stone that invites positive energy, tourmalines come in a wide variety of exciting colours.
Tourmaline is the gemological name for an important group of complex gem-quality boron silicate minerals. Its name is thought to be derived from the Sinhalese word 'turamali' or 'stone with mixed colours' as tourmaline can be found in all colours of the rainbow from brown, yellow, pinks to blues. Most red, pink and brown to yellow tourmaline is coloured by manganese, while iron and titanium can result in greenish to bluish-black colours. The rare emerald-green tourmaline is coloured by chromium (and sometimes vanadium).
- Paraíba tourmaline gets it name from Paraíba, Brazil and is a deep green, violet or blueish tone.
- Rubellite tourmaline is usually shades of red, orange or brownish tones.
- Indicolite tourmaline is a dark green, blues or purple tone.
- Bi-coloured tourmaline, as the name suggests, displays more than one colour in the same stone, often seen in green and pink but can be many others shades.
Tourmaline has been known since antiquity in the Mediterranean region with the Dutch importing it in 1703 from Sri Lanka to Western and Central Europe. Tourmaline is also the national gemstone for the United States, where it has been mined for centuries. California was a large producer of tourmaline in the 1900s and it was first discovered in the US in Maine in 1822.