About

Tourmaline is a semi-precious gemstone with many faces. It is often mistaken for other gemstones: tourmaline can be found in every color imaginable, and an untrained eye might take a green tourmaline to be an emerald, or a red tourmaline as a ruby. However, with its high refractive index and a hardness of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale, tourmaline is easily as beautiful and durable as the gems it is mistaken for. In fact, tourmaline is said to encourage artistic expression due to its many faces and moods.

Tourmaline’s most ardent admirer was perhaps the last empress of the Ch’ing Dynasty, the Empress Tzu Hsi. A new tourmaline mine was discovered in California in the late 1800’s, and the empress bought up great quantities of the colorful semi-precious stone. Her tourmaline was shipped back to China, where the empress had her treasured tourmaline fashioned into everything from buttons for her clothing to a solid tourmaline pillow.

Artist

Adel Chefridi was born in the old city of Tunis, along the Mediterranean coast. He came to New York in 1998, where he founded his studio, his work increasingly drawing from his multicultural background, reconciling past and present, nostalgia and hope. Adel studied Gemology in the most advanced Gem lab and school in the U.S., the Gemological Institute of America, where he graduated as Graduate Gemologist (GG) and Accredited Jewelry Professional (AJP). He then went on to intensive study of goldsmithing at Studio Jewelers, Ltd. in Manhattan and graduated as a Bench Jeweler.

Details

• 18k satin-finish gold
• 7mm bezel-set pink tourmaline
• band fluctuates between 2mm and 3mm
• TLC for your satin-finish gold and precious gemstone jewelry