Quick Specs
- Type: Bottle pendant necklace
- Pendant: Heart-shaped glass bottle with cork stopper, about 1 by 1 1/4 inches
- Fill: Mixed tourmaline chips
- Color: Pink, green, amber, gray, black and clear
- Cord: Black satin, 24 inches
- Mohs Hardness: 7 to 7.5
A Glass Heart Full of Many-Colored Tourmaline
This bottle is packed with color. The pieces are small and rounded, with smooth surfaces like tiny pebbles, and they fill the clear glass heart until they almost reach the neck. Pink and rose pieces sit beside sage green and deep green, golden amber, smoky gray, black and clear ones, and no single color takes over the pile. Some pieces are glassy and see-through, others cloudy and pale, and the darkest green and black ones read as nearly solid. Light passes through the translucent pieces and leaves the dark ones as accents among them. A tan cork closes the neck, with its lower half set inside the glass, and a small silver-toned metal ring above it takes the 24 inch black satin cord, which falls in a gentle curve on either side. The heart measures about 1 inch across and 1 1/4 inches tall, so it hangs as a compact pendant, with shoulders that slope from the neck down to a rounded point. When the bottle tilts, the pieces roll over one another and the colors rearrange, which gives the pendant a different look from one moment to the next.
Tourmaline is a group of closely related boron silicate minerals, and GIA lists elbaite, liddicoatite, dravite, uvite and schorl as the major species. It rates 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale, GIA rates its toughness as fair, and it turns up in nearly every color. Minerals.net calls it the most multicolored mineral type known and describes its crystals as elongated prisms with a rounded, triangular cross-section, and Wikipedia adds that bi-colored and multicolored crystals are common. GIA’s color names include rubellite for pink to red, indicolite for blue, and parti-colored or watermelon for stones that show more than one color, and it says gem elbaite forms in granite-containing pegmatites. Wikipedia says almost every color of tourmaline can be found in Brazil, especially in Minas Gerais and Bahia, and the name of the mineral comes from a Sinhalese word. The Gem Society lists heating and irradiation among the treatments commonly used on tourmaline. A bottle of mixed pieces shows that range of color in one small heart, with pink, green and amber in the same handful.
Practical Ritual Applications
Wear the heart on its 24 inch cord over a plain top, where the colors show against a solid background. Between wearings, hang it from a lamp, a curtain rod or a hook by a window so daylight passes through the glass. On a desk, a small dish or stand holds the bottle upright beside a notebook, and tilting it now and then gives you a quick pause in a busy day. On an altar, set it among stones of several colors and let the mixed pieces stand for variety. The bright pile suits a gift for a collector of colorful minerals, and the small heart fits easily into a card or a box. Layer it with other pendants from my crystal and gemstone pendants if you like several lengths together.
How to Wear and Care for the Mixed Tourmaline Heart Bottle Necklace
Three steps cover checking the bottle, wearing it, and storing it.
- Check the Cork and Ring
Look the pendant over in good light. Make sure the cork sits snug in the neck and the small metal ring above it is firm, then lift the necklace by the cord to see how the heart hangs. Tilt the bottle gently and watch the pieces roll. Hold the heart by its body when you handle it, since glass can chip at the neck if it knocks a hard surface.
- Wear It With Care
The bottle is glass and holds small loose pieces, so keep it away from young children. Take the necklace off for sports, sleep and any task where the bottle could be struck or the cord could catch. Wear it outside heavy clothing, clear of zippers and buttons, so the glass stays safe from knocks.
- Store It Away From Heat
Wipe the glass with a soft, dry cloth. GIA notes that sudden temperature change can fracture tourmaline and that color produced by irradiation can fade with heat or bright light, so store the necklace in a box or on a hook out of long direct sun and away from radiators. A lined box keeps the glass clear of keys and other jewelry.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock this necklace because tourmaline is a mineral known for its color, and a bottle of mixed pieces shows that range in one small heart. The bottle is glass and the pieces are small and loose, so I treat it as an adult piece. The chakra and rainbow stories told about tourmaline belong to modern crystal lore and old legend, and I offer them as themes for your own reflection. For more stones sorted by chakra, browse my chakra and Reiki collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tourmaline is a family of related minerals whose makeup varies. Crystal Vaults explains that aluminum borosilicates mixed with iron, magnesium or other metals form red, pink, yellow, brown, black, green, blue or violet crystals, depending on the proportions. Wikipedia adds that bi-colored and multicolored crystals are common because the fluids feeding a crystal change in chemistry as it grows. One crystal can therefore carry several colors.
Crystals.com lists tourmaline with all the chakras, and Crystal Vaults assigns chakras by color, giving blue tourmaline to the throat and third eye. A legend, which Crystal Vaults credits to Egypt and Fire Mountain Gems also tells, says tourmaline passed over a rainbow and took all its colors. These are modern crystal lore and story, so take them as themes for reflection.
Tourmaline is pyroelectric: a change in temperature produces an electric charge on the crystal. Wikipedia says gem tourmaline was once called the Ceylonese Magnet because it could attract and then repel hot ashes. Minerals.net adds that pressure or a temperature change generates a charge and that dust particles attach to the ends of the crystal. The effect is a property of the mineral itself.
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