Some things are just happy. Not complicated, not bittersweet, not quietly melancholy the way so many beautiful things are. Just happy. A bracelet that catches the light and throws pink and green and red and gold and teal back at you from every angle is one of those things. You put it on and you feel better. That is the whole story.
The Tourmaline
An ancient Egyptian legend tells us that tourmaline, on its long journey from the center of the earth up through the soil to the surface, passed through a rainbow. And that is how it got its colors. Every single one of them.
This is, scientifically speaking, not how minerals form. But it is one of those explanations that feels so right you almost do not want to correct it. Tourmaline has one of the widest color ranges of any gemstone on earth, occurring in virtually every shade of every hue, and the name itself comes from the Sinhalese word turamali meaning stone of mixed colors. Iron and titanium produce the greens and blues. Manganese creates the pinks and reds. Copper in unusual concentrations produces the electric neon blues of the rarest and most valuable Paraiba tourmalines. Change the chemistry by the smallest fraction during crystal formation and the color shifts entirely. Some crystals change color partway through their growth, producing two or three distinct zones in a single stone. The watermelon tourmaline is the most famous of these, pink at the center shading out through white to green at the edges, a cross section of color change frozen in mineral form, looking for all the world like someone sliced open a very small watermelon and found a gemstone inside.
The rainbow explanation honestly holds up.
The Piece
At the center of this bracelet a large watermelon tourmaline slice sits in a simple sterling silver setting, that vivid pink center surrounded by its ring of deep green, the color boundary between them clean and clear and exactly as satisfying as a perfectly ripe piece of fruit. It is, as watermelon tourmalines go, almost perfectly proportioned, the pink and the green in exactly the right balance.
From there the bracelet opens into a hand pieced loop chain of sterling silver, each link formed by hand, and at intervals along every link small clusters of faceted tourmaline beads in every possible color dangle from fine wire loops. Pink. Red. Green. Teal. Gold. Black. Orange. Each one a slightly different shade from the next, the whole bracelet a wearable demonstration of everything tourmaline can do when given the full range of its chemistry. They catch the light differently depending on the angle and the time of day and they are never quite the same bracelet twice.
The bracelet measures approximately 8 inches long and closes with a heavy duty decorative S clasp that can hook onto any link, allowing you to wear it shorter if you prefer.
The Craftsmanship
- Bracelet: approximately 8 inches long, adjustable via S clasp
- Stones: watermelon tourmaline slice center, mixed faceted tourmaline bead dangles in full color range
- Material: sterling silver throughout
- Closure: decorative S clasp, hooks any link
- Edition: one of a kind
One of a Kind
There is only one of this bracelet in the world. This watermelon slice, these particular bead colors in this particular arrangement on this particular hand pieced chain: they exist once. When it finds its person it will never be made again exactly like this.
A Note from Tamara
I made this bracelet because I wanted to put every color tourmaline comes in onto one wrist at once and see what happened. What happened is this, and I am very pleased with it. The watermelon slice at the center felt like the right anchor for the whole thing, the stone that contains the whole story of what tourmaline does inside itself, surrounded by every other color it is capable of producing. I hope whoever wears it feels that same simple uncomplicated joy every time it catches the light. Some things are just happy. This is one of them.
Shipping
Your bracelet is finished, packaged safely, and will be on its way to you within 3 to 5 business days.