Elbaite Tourmaline

A pleasingly stubby and partly gemmy Elbaite Tourmaline crystal with a nice chunky feel!  An off-matrix specimen, the crystal has what appears to be a re-healed basal cleavage that allows the specimen to stand vertically. The lower 2.9 cm is various shades of plummy-claret-red; beginning a deeper plum and upwardly grading to paler shades and then to watery bubble-gum pink. At this point, the colour changes to bluish-lime-green which continues to the trigonal shallow pyramidal termination, the faces of which are subtle shades of plum and apple-green.  A delightful specimen of Elbaite Tourmaline from Paprok in Kamdesh District, Afghanistan.