All about the Rainbow Tourmaline

Legend has it that tourmaline, when travelling to the surface of the Earth, passed over a rainbow and assumed all of its colours. You can’t be blamed for feeling like a kid in a candy store when discovering the vast array of brilliant shades of this semi-precious stone. The rainbow tourmaline really is the liquorice all-sorts of the gem world.

The name is derived from the Sinhalese word Turmali or Thoramalli which means ‘stone of many colours’ and refers to the variety of multi-coloured gemstones found in Sri Lanka. They were taken to Europe in great quantities by the Dutch East India Company.

Tourmalines are mixed crystals of aluminium boron silicate with a changing composition. The mineral group is fairly complex. Even slight changes in the composition result in very different colours and crystals of a single colour are fairly rare. The stones with two colours are known as bicoloured tourmalines; and those with more than two colours are known as multicoloured tourmalines. Slices showing a cross-section of the tourmaline crystal are popular because they display the entire, incomparable colour variation of this gemstone. If the centre of the slice is red and the area around it green, the stone is called watermelon.

The attractive rainbow tourmaline is magnetic

These gems have astonishing physical qualities and can become electrically charged when they are heated and then cooled. They assume a positive charge and negative charge at opposite ends and attract light objects. This is known as pyroelectricity, derived from the Greek word pyr meaning fire. The Dutch were familiar with this effect back in the 18th century and used a heated tourmaline to draw up the ash from their meerschaum pipes. They called the tourmaline an aschentrekker (ash puller).

Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi loved tourmaline

Tzu Hsi, the Dowager Empress who ruled China from 1860 to 1908, was the last Empress of the Ch’ing Dynasty. She so loved this stone that she bought enormous quantities of it when a new mine opened in California. The gem was carved and used for toggles or buttons for the jackets worn by the royal court and other wealthy individuals. It is said that her body was laid to rest eternally on a pink tourmaline pillow.

The tourmaline is the birthstone of those born in October. As tourmaline is more affordable, it can be used in place of more pricey precious gemstones. You can use pink and red tourmaline instead of a ruby; deep green tourmaline instead of emeralds; and blue tourmaline instead of sapphires. Tourmaline jewellery  is durable enough for everyday wear, which makes it a popular choice for rings, bracelets and earrings. However, because of their static charge, they tend to attract dust and need to be cleaned more regularly than your other jewellery.