The holy grail of the multi-coloured tourmaline family is undoubtedly the electric coloured gemstone known as Paraiba.

Tourmalines are complex boro-silicates that have incredibly long chemical formulas that resemble a mediaeval apothecary's script. They are coloured by various transition elements such as magnesium or traces of chromium and vanadium (the two metal ions responsible for the brilliant hues of emerald and ruby) and even bismuth! The intensely coloured, almost neon blue through to green coloured tourmalines from the Paraiba state in Brazil are unique in the tourmaline family as they are coloured by copper (which is responsible for the beautiful vibrant blue colour of turquoise). Paraiba tourmaline is often included with copper platelets which can be dendritic in form and have a yellow, metallic lustre.

Tourmaline is so appealing to jewellers as this family of gems offers the greatest variety of colour choices. Since the discovery of Paraiba tourmaline in the 1980s by Heitor Dimas Barbosa, extra neon colours have been added to the already extensive rainbow palette of tourmaline. Mr Barbosa toiled for years digging in and around the hills of the state of Paraiba in Brazil, hoping to discover something unique. Imagine his delight when he uncovered the first neon blue beauty!

The colours of Paraiba tourmaline are: electric neon turquoise, neon sea green, electric cobalt blue and a sizzling purple. The most sought-after colour is the electric neon turquoise which looks so spectacular coupled with diamonds imagine how fresh and appealing a neon Paraiba centre stone and diamond and Paraiba melee pave set looks in brilliant white gold!

Paraiba tourmalines seem to have a unique incandescent glow that sets them apart from all other gems. Since the discovery in Paraiba, Brazil, other similar gems have been excavated in Mozambique and Nigeria since 2003. These gems are so close in their chemical composition to the original deposit in Brazil that they are known as Paraiba type. Gems weighing over five carats are being unearthed in these newer deposits which is a true gift from Mother Nature! There's an ongoing debate on whether only tourmalines uncovered from the Paraiba state in Brazil have the right to be called Paraiba. Gem dealers are getting around this by calling stones from the other countries Paraiba type. Surely the main point is the stunning colour and the copper content to qualify as a true Paraiba!

Many of us may have jewellery tucked away and unworn because the gold colour isn't suiting our current style. White gold has been the most popular choice for over a decade and many us feel that our yellow gold pieces aren't so in vogue or that the two metal colours can't be worn simultaneously.

The good news is that the trend is to wear multiple gold colours together and the best way to achieve this is to bring the look together with a two-tone statement piece. Our gorgeous new Manhattan earrings, inspired by the Art Deco skyscrapers in New York city, feature unique parti coloured sapphires set in 18ct yellow gold and long elegant green tourmalines in 18ct white. The golds come together in total harmony and you could easily wear other pieces in yellow and white gold to create a contemporary look that avoids the old fashioned matched look.

If your yellow gold jewellery is looking out dated next to your white gold pieces, visit us for a consultation and we can remodel it into a two-tone statement piece so it no longer sits unworn in your jewellery box.

If your birthday falls in October then you are certainly spoiled for choice when it comes to selecting your birthstone. The two choices are opal and tourmaline both of these gems are truly kaleidoscopic!

OPULENT OPAL

Opal is one of the rarest and most fascinating gems of all. Australia is blessed with 90% of the finest precious opal including the famous black opal from Lightning Ridge in NSW. Precious black opal has a black body colour and can sometimes display all the spectral colours when viewed from different positions. This kaleidoscopic effect is known as play of colour and is due to the diffraction of light through spheres of silica in the atomic lattice of the gem. Vivid greens and blues are the most common colours while flashes of red are the rarest. Some precious opals can display distinct patterns such as Harlequin and Chinese Writing.

RAINBOW TOURMALINE

Tourmaline is the rainbow gem that appears in a myriad of colours. Reds are known as Rubellite, teal blues as Indicolite and a stunning bi-coloured gem with distinct colour zones of pink and green as Watermelon tourmaline. Other colours are golds, browns, Blacks, greens, oranges and pinks. The most prized tourmalines of all are known as Paraiba tourmaline. These stunning gems are coloured with traces of copper which give them a neon blue through to blue green colour which is highly prized among collectors. Named after the Paraiba district in Brazil from where they are mined, they will knock you out with their beauty.

Lizunova Fine Jewels can source any natural gemstone that you desire. Contact us for a consultation and we can present you with a selection of gems to inspire your bespoke jewellery piece.

Image courtesy of American Gem Society.

Garnet colours

Most people have the misconception that garnets are rather unattractive dark reddish-brown stones and are basically a "poor man's ruby". This couldn't be further from the truth - garnets are a remarkable family of gemstones that come in every colour except for a true blue (some rare teal blues do exist). They also can display amazing phenomena such as asterism (e.g. the famous almandine star garnets from Idaho, USA); chatoyancy, producing a cat's eye effect, and colour-change from teal blue/greens in natural and fluorescent light and rich reddish purple in incandescent light striking gems which make a wonderful alternative to Alexandrite. They normally have a bright, vitreous lustre and take a good polish and have a bright, fiery appearance. Mali and Demantoid garnets have a sub-adamantine lustre and sparkle like diamonds.

Garnets in jewellery

Garnets have good hardness and range from 6.5 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale. They are hard enough to set into ring settings, however, should be worn with care.

Garnet varieties

There are six major varieties of gem garnets that are used in jewellery: Pyrope, Almandine, Spessartine, Grossular, Andradite and Uvarovite. Pyrope garnets are famous for their fiery red colour that flashes in the sun; Almandine garnets are the classic rich dark red stones that have been used in jewellery since antiquity; Spessartine garnets can be vivid orange and are known in the trade as Mandarin garnets; Grossular garnets range from nearly colourless to gold through to green the most prized Grossulars are the vivid grass green Tsavorites; Andradites can be attractive browns, however, the king of garnets, Demantoid, belongs to this variety. Finally, the stunning Uvarovite garnet comes in a chromium-rich emerald green colour. As the crystals are so small, pieces of Uvarovite drusy are used to create unique and contemporary jewellery pieces.

Spessartite garnet. Image: Lizunova Fine Jewels

As mentioned, the king of garnets would have to be Demantoid from the Andradite variety. This dazzling green gem was first uncovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1868 and was referred to as demantoid from the old French demant meaning diamond. The gemstone truly deserves this moniker as it has an adamantine lustre and greater dispersion or fire than diamond. This means when white light travels through the stone it is split into its spectral colours producing rainbow-like sparkles through its soft green hues.

Another divinely colourful garnet is the Malaya garnet, which is a soft rose pink that will colour-shift to a warm cognac under different lighting conditions. Originally these unique gems were cast aside as miners were looking for purple-red Rhodolite garnets. Hence the stone was unfairly named Malaya, which translates to Outcast in Swahili. Fortunately, late last century, gem dealers finally appreciated their exquisite beauty and Malaya garnets are now highly sought after and are becoming increasingly rare as sources are dwindling.

Cushion cut Malaya garnet. Image: Lizunova Fine Jewels

Sources of garnet

Argentina, Brazil, Germany, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Pakistan, Russia, Scandinavia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, and Tanzania.

Rhodolite garnet. Image: Lizunova Fine Jewels.

SPECIFICATIONS

Hardness: 6.5-7.5 Mohs
Specific Gravity: 4.79-4.16
Refractive Index: 1.69-1.89
Crystal System: Cubic, Dodecahedra habit
Lustre: Vitreous to sub-adamantine
Cleavage: None

Sources: lizunova.com, The Jeweller's Directory of Gemstones, Judith Crowe

Main image: gia.edu

With Spring upon us it's time to starting considering fresh looks for the warmer months. It's time to stash away the heavy dark layers and explore light gossamer fabrics that suit long sunny days. The ultimate accessory for warm weather gear would have to be our Amazon designer gemstone earrings with rhodolite garnet and amazonite drops. Amazonite is a fabulous ornamental gem that comes in bright turquoise blues and gentle soft greens. We think it's just magical set in rose gold with the pink-purple garnets.

Amazonite is claimed to facilitate calm, rational thinking and aid with communication and expression of ideas, bolstering self-awareness and confidence.

The Holy Grail of the Tourmaline family would have to be the neon coloured 'Paraiba' Tourmalines. These super exotic gemstones come in electrifying colours such as neon sky blue and green, electric cobalt and intense violet. Paraiba contains significant traces of the transition element copper, which is responsible for the neon colours of the Paraiba palette. This makes the stones unique being the only tourmaline members to contain copper (copper is responsible for the beautiful blues of turquoise). Found in the Paraiba state of Brazil in the late 1980s this gem's price per carat has skyrocketed beyond any other tourmaline including Rubellite. Fortunately other similar stones have been found in East Africa and other parts of Brazil.

At Lizunova, we are extremely fortunate to have one of these rare beauties in stock. This delightful pear cut stone from Mozambique is 1.75cts and is the neon turquoise colour that makes this gem so desired.

Need custom made jewellery? Contact us at info@lizunova.com .

Spinel is a lesser-known gemstone that is exceptionally rare far more rare than ruby or sapphire. Like sapphire and ruby, it has good durability and can be worn in ring settings for everyday wear, thus making it a good alternative stone for engagement rings. The best quality gems in size, colour and quality come from Myanmar (Burma). Other sources include Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Madagascar, Afghanistan and Thailand.

The name for spinel is thought to have derived form the Latin word 'spina' meaning 'thorn'  a reference to its pointed octahedral crystal form. Spinel is often inclusion free, with better clarity than its sapphire and ruby counterparts.

Pink spinel is often overlooked or mistaken for more marketable pink sapphire or pink tourmaline, however this is rather unfortunate as spinel is far more rare. Funnily enough, spinel is often discovered in the same gem deposits as its gemstone rival, sapphire.

Pink spinel comes in a variety of shades including pretty pastels, neon pinks and berry tones something to suit every skin tone! Pink is right on trend for coloured gemstones and is joining blue and purple as the most desired colour. As the current trend is for vibrant, saturated colours, spinel offers the best in scintillating hot pinks.

Pink spinel is said to offer gentle energy renewal and be protective in a quiet, gentle way.Offering encouragement in difficult situations, spinel is said tohelp lower stress.

Pink spinel is a wonderful choice for bespoke jewellery and especially engagement rings, as it's an 8 on the Mohs hardness scale and is very unlikely to be heat-treated. Pink spinel is usually significantly cheaper than its sapphire counterpart and is a marvellous investment gem as sources are scarce, thus prices are set to keep rising.

At Lizunova weincorporated the magic of hot pink spinel with the cool mystery of gorgeous green emerald as stylishly complementary gems in our elegantlong Manhattan earrings set in two tone yellow and white 18k gold. As wornby Australian journalist and TV presenter Sandra Sully on TEN Eyewitness News, these earrings are perfect for the discerning gem lover who appreciates the three qualifying properties of fine gems: beauty, durability and rarity.

A beautiful green gemstone from the Olivine gamily, magnesium-rich peridot is the birthstone for August. Called  the extreme gem by the Gemological Institute of America, peridot is born of fire and brought to light, one of only two gems (diamond is the other) formed not in the Earth's crust, but in molten rock of the upper mantle and brought to the surface by the tremendous forces of earthquakes and volcanoes. While these peridots are born of Earth, other crystals of peridot have extraterrestrial origins, found in rare pallasite meteorites (only 61 known to date) formed some 4.5 billion years ago, remnants of our solar system's birth. Some rare extraterrestrial crystals are even big enough to facet as cut gemstones.Peridot in its basic form, olivine, was also found in comet dust brought back from theStardustrobotic space probe in 2006, has been discovered on the moon, and detected by instrument on Mars by NASA's Global Surveyor. Ancients believed, quite accurately, that peridot was ejected to Earth by a sun's explosion and carries its healing power.

On Earth, peridots are found in the US, Australia, Brazil, China Egypt, Kenya, Mexico, Burma,Norway,Pakistan,Saudi Arabia,South Africa,Sri Lanka andTanzania. Peridots are also found in exotic locales like Peridot Beach, Hawaii, where the sands shimmer a luminous green.

The word peridot comes from the Arabic faridat, meaning gem. A yellow-green, gem quality variety of the mineral olivine, peridotgets its attractive yellowish green hues from the presence of iron. Volcanic basalt rocks are rich in iron and magnesium  two essential elements needed to create the gem. Hardened lava flows can be rich sources for peridot.

Prized in Ancient Egypt, peridot was nicknamed by the Egyptiansthe gem of the sun andrecorded to have been mined since circa 1500 BC on the Red Sea island ofZabargad. A large proportion of peridots in the world's museums originate from there. Some historians believe that Cleopatra's emerald collection might actually have been peridot.

Peridot is sometimes mistaken for emeralds and other green gems. Notable gemologist George Frederick Kunz highlighted the confusion between emeralds and peridots in many churchtreasures, notably the "Three Magi" treasure in the Dom of Cologne, Germany.

The largest cut peridot olivine is a 310 carat (62g) specimen in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

Peridots can be differentiated by size and composition. A peridot formed as a result of volcanic activity tends to contain higher concentrations of lithium, nickel and zinc than those found in meteorites.

Olivine in general is a very abundant mineral, but gem quality peridot is rather rare. This is due to the mineral's chemical instability on the Earth's surface. Olivine is usually found as small grains, and tends to exist in a heavily weathered state, unsuitable for decorative use. Large crystals of forsterite, the variety most often used to cut peridot gems, are rare. Peridot, in shades of olive, is one of the few gemstones that forms in only one colour.

It is believed to be a crystal of warmth and well-being, mentally stimulating and physically regenerating. Peridot is said to carry the gift of inner radiance, sharpening the mind and opening it to new levels of awareness and growth, helping one to recognize and realize one's destiny and spiritual purpose.

Associated with the sun, peridot has been prized since the earliest civilizations for its protective powers to drive away the forces of darkness. Set in gold and worn around the neck or bound to the left arm, it was used as a charm against sorcery and magic, evil spirits, night terrors, and madness.

Peridot possessesextremely high double refraction-when you look closely through the gem, you can see two of each pavilion facet.

Large,brightly coloured and inclusion-free peridots are highly valued in modern jewellery making. Best material today comes from Pakistan, as does this beautiful gem, ready to be made into acustom ring or pendant.

We have just completed this amazing custom made ring withcustomer's own 4ct sapphire and 1.5ct emerald. Handmade in 22 karat yellow gold and 18 karat white gold, with 180 pave set diamonds, this unique ring has a beautiful opulence to it. Technically challenging, it is impeccably crafted, and the pave work is amazing.

We can source and custom cut practically any kind of coloured gemstone or diamond.Contact us if you would like to enquire about a unique custom made ring, earrings, necklace or bracelet.