October birthstone lets you get pretty in pink!

It's been tough finding a good, vibrant pink - but it's finally here!  And, just by coincidence, it's the perfect color for those October birthday girls.  :)

As you might have noticed, I started doing this birthstone series a couple months ago.  I have made a LOT of colors of jewelry through my nearly 12 years making Sundrops, and pinks have always been tricky.  Red and pink glass tends to do some strange things when heated, turning from a clear vibrant color to yellow, rust-red, or streaky.  And often the red or pink color comes from the kinds of chemicals whose fumes I don’t want to breathe when the glass melts - like lead.  But, finally this year I have found a gorgeous watermelon pink that stays true to color and doesn’t contain any worrisome ingredients. 

And I thought, when better time to introduce this vibrant pink than as October’s birthstone color - pink tourmaline!

Tourmaline Fun Facts: Tourmaline comes in every color of the rainbow.  In fact, an Egyptian legend says that in its long passage up from the center of the Earth, tourmaline passed through a rainbow, and collected every color.   Many tourmalines are highly magnetic, with yellow, green and blues able to attract a small magnet.  Reds and pinks are generally not very magnetic, however. The pink color of many tourmalines comes from natural irradiation - as they formed, the crystals were very pale, but exposure to radioactive decay of nearby minerals deepened the color to bright pinks and red. Watermelon tourmaline (raspberry pink and minty green) from Maine and California took the world by storm in the early 1900’s.  The Dowager Empress and Regent of China at the time loved pink tourmaline and imported large quantities from California.