Iolite Loose Gemstones, Loose Iolite Gemstones, Loose Iolite Gemstones Wholesale, Loose Iolite Gemstones for sale

When Leif Eriksson and the other legendary Viking explorers ventured far out into the Atlantic Ocean, away from any coastline that could help them determine their position, they had a secret gem weapon: iolite. The Viking mariners used thin pieces of it as the world's first polarising filter. Looking through an iolite lens, they were able to determine the exact position of the sun, and navigate their way safely to the New World and back.

The property that made iolite so valuable to the Vikings is its extreme pleochroism. Iolite has different colours in different directions in the crystal. A cube cut from iolite will look a more or less violet blue, almost like sapphire, from one side, clear as water from the other, and a honey yellow from on top. In the past, this property led some people to call iolite 'water sapphire', though the name is now obsolete.

Pleochroism may have been helpful in navigation but it certainly makes life difficult for the cutter. If iolite is not cut from exactly the right direction, no matter what the shape of the raw crystal, its colour will not be shown to its best advantage.

Iolite is readily available and surprisingly affordable. The richer the blue, the better. It is mined in India, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Brazil. The Vikings probably mined theirs from deposits in Norway and Greenland.

Buy Iolite Loose Cut Gemstone !!

We can Supply Loose Iolite Gemstone in all shapes, sizes & in all three Quality (AAA, AA , A)

Sizes available are like:

Shape	Size
Round	2 MM to 10 MM
Oval	3x5 MM to 15x20 MM
Pears	3x5 MM to 8x12 MM
Trillion	3x3 MM to 15x15 MM
Marquise	2x4 MM to 4x8 MM
Square	4 MM to 20 MM
Octagon	3x5 MM to 15x20 MM

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