Iolite - The Sapphire Blue Gem

 IOLITE - A Dichroic Gem

This stone is a beautiful sapphire blue in one direction, but an unattractive yellow gray in another, a property known as dichrosim. When properly cut, the blue color dominates and the gem is quite beautiful. This gem is also sometimes called water sapphire. It is a collector stone that will not normally be seen offered for sale in your standard jewelry store.

It's optical properties are actually below average, and because it is very common that this gem contains slight inclusions causing fuzziness, it often shows below average sparkle.  Rough pieces of 50 carats or larger are not unusual for flawless gems over 10 carats are quite uncommon.  The stone is comparatively inexpensive and is sometimes offered for sale on the various TV sales channel gem and jewelry shows. Iolite gems come from several places including Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Tanzania.  Virtually all examples are natural and untreated, as there are no well-known treatment techniques used on this stone.