Tourmaline and Diamond Earrings in 14K

Tourmaline's name comes from the Sinhalese tura mali, which means "mixed gems." Available in a rainbow of colors and color combinations from pink to blue and every shade in between, tourmaline lives up to its name. Legend says tourmaline inspires artistic expression and enhances your intuition. Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi, the last empress of China, loved pink tourmaline above all other gems, even sleeping on a carved pink tourmaline pillow. Tourmaline also has unusual electrical properties: it’s both pyroelectric and piezoelectric. That means tourmaline crystals acquire a polarized electrical charge when heated or compressed. Tourmaline is a birthstone for October and the gem of the eighth anniversary. Wear tourmaline to inspire your creative side and charge your imagination.

14K white gold is the most popular white precious jewelry metal. Its pale glow is the perfect setting for cool-toned gems. Since gold is naturally golden yellow in color, to make 14K white gold, 58.5% gold is alloyed with white metals, usually silver, zinc, palladium, or nickel. These metals also improve the hardness, durability and affordability of white gold jewelry, since pure gold scratches fairly easily. To get that bright shine, most white gold jewelry is also plated with rhodium, a platinum group metal.