A different look, for a Stak Nala elbaite tourmaline. The exposed part of this parallel-growth crystal group is mostly a delicate light pink colour at the translucent termination areas, and although the colour zoning grades to dark green (as is typical from here), most of the green that is present is embedded in the microcline plate, partly covered by clusters of albite crystals as well. The terminations have a frosty appearance, while the striated prism faces are glassy. This singly-terminated tourmaline is in excellent condition - no damage to any of the main parallel growth crystals. Nice, aesthetic matrix tourmaline.
Since the 1980s, elbaite toumaline crystals from the pegmatites at Stak Nala have been known worldwide. Particularly distinctive and prized when associated with albite crystals, these tourmalines are usually colour-zoned, with dark green to black-appearing centre sections, with zones of green, pink, blue or colourless zones at the terminations - often, a closer inspection with strong light or a strong reflective background are needed to show these zones. The doubly-terminated crystals from Stak Nala are super examples of hemimorphism (the crystal forms present at one termination are different from those at the other termination). I was fortunate to acquire these from a member of the family that mines them.