What makes a strand "multi" tourmaline?
The color comes from chemistry. Tourmaline is a group of boron silicate minerals that share a crystal structure but vary widely in composition, and that variation is why a single pocket can yield pink, green and blue crystals side by side.
Elbaite is the species behind most bead material. When our cutters sort rough for a multi strand, they are pulling from the same mineral family and arranging the colors so the strand reads as a gradient rather than a jumble. You can read more on our tourmaline stone guide.
How is watermelon tourmaline different from multi tourmaline?
Watermelon is a bicolor crystal, pink in the core and green around the outside. Cut a thin slice across the crystal and you see both colors in one bead. Cut lengthwise and you get a bead that shifts from one color to the other along its length.
- Multi strand: many separate crystals, one color per bead
- Watermelon bead: one crystal, two colors visible in the same bead
- Slices: the cross section, so pink core and green rim both show
- Rondelles and pears: usually read as a single color each
Why are the faceted strands only 2 to 4mm?
Clean tourmaline rough in good color tends to be small, and the crystals are heavily included through much of their length. A cutter working for clarity ends up with a lot of small finished beads and very few large ones.
That is why our multi and watermelon faceted rondelles sit in the 2 to 4mm range while the larger material goes into hearts, pears and slices sold as focals. At 3mm, figure about 17 carats per 8 inches of strand.
How many multi tourmaline beads do you need for a bracelet or necklace?
Small beads mean high counts, so plan before you cut wire. A 7.5 inch bracelet with a clasp leaves about 6 inches of beaded run, which takes roughly 38 beads at 4mm. An 18 inch necklace at 4mm runs about 104 beads.
Standard strand length from our Jaipur cutters is 13 to 16 inches, and 13 inch strands are common for faceted rondelles. One strand covers a bracelet or a choker. Two strands make a long necklace with room for design. See the rondelle shape page for how these are measured and drilled.
Knotting between beads adds about 1 mm per knot, which adds up fast at this size.
- 7 inch bracelet, 5.5 inch beaded run: about 35 beads at 4mm
- 7.5 inch bracelet, 6 inch beaded run: about 25 beads at 6mm
- 16 inch choker, 14.5 inch beaded run: about 46 beads at 8mm
- 22 inch matinee: 20.5 inch beaded run after allowing 1.5 inches for clasp and findings
How do you judge a good multi tourmaline strand?
Look at the ratio of clear color to mud. A good multi strand has clean pinks, greens and blues with only a few muddy brown-olive beads scattered through it. Weak saturation is the main thing that pulls a strand's value down.
Under a loupe, facet edges double because of tourmaline's optical character. Anish keeps a 10x loupe on the table at every show for exactly this, and it is the fastest check we know when someone asks what they are holding. Come find us at the InterGem shows and look through it yourself.
What do designers actually make with these strands?
Multi rondelles are the volume seller. They string well on their own, work as spacers between larger stones and suit layered pieces because the color changes bead to bead without needing extra components.
Slices, pear briolettes and faceted hearts go the other direction and sell as single focals. Wire-wrappers buy them one or two at a time. Tourmaline is also October's birthstone alongside opal, which matters if you sell by birth month. Browse what we have in the shop; we currently list 12 tourmaline strands and photos are of the actual strand unless marked representative.