Iolite: The Water Stone
I have one Iolite in my collection and it is a cushion cut. Iolite is a beautiful stone that ranges from blue to purple in color. It is a popular less expensive substitute for both Sapphire and Tanzanite depending on the color of the stone. The Iolite I have is somewhere in between blue and purple and it is really pretty.
The really fun thing about Iolite is that it appears to be bi-colored. In actuality, the stones are not bi-colored but something about the chemical make-up of the stone makes it look that way. Iolite has pleochroism which simply means that when light passes through the stone it takes several paths and returns different colors depending on the angle. Iolite is called the water stone because of this phenomenon. You can tell that the stone isn’t bi-colored because the lighter color in the stone changes depending on the angle of the stone.
You can see this the pleochroism in the following picture of my Iolite. The bottom of the stone looks lighter than the rest of the stone but you could turn the stone the other way and the colors would reverse.
This stone is for sale! If you are interested please contact me at leah@leahashleydesigns.com.
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