100% BIO is a series of illustrations I made for Instagram, in which I mix art, gemology and nature. An aesthetic game between reality and fiction in which the stone is always the protagonist. Each stone is presented in a slightly original way, sometimes with movement or transformed into a mountain, for example. Faceted or not, is always accompanied by an animal that looks like it and interacts with it.
Toutes les illustrations de cette série ont été entièrement réalisées à la main et à la gouache. Elles sont le reflet de la liberté de mon esprit et de mon imagination. Approchez-vous et découvrez les détails cachés de cette pierre fascinante.
What type of stone is shown in this illustration?
I have chosen a two-colour tourmaline, ranging from apple green to dark blue with a rectangular cut. Beautiful tourmalines can be found in Madagascar and Brazil.
What particular characteristics are there in this tourmaline?
Tourmaline is characterised by a very rich palette of colours; it can be colourless, bi-coloured or multi-coloured. Thanks to the complexity of its chemical composition, we know for example that the green colour in a tourmaline is mainly due to the presence of chromium or vanadium, although the blue is due to the presence of iron. The tourmaline can show various types of liquid inclusions, irregular cavities, whiskers, healing frosts, coloured zones among others.
In this illustration you can see a colour transition between green and blue. To the right of the stone just below of the chameleon you can identify in black a type of inclusion called "whiskers", extremely common in tourmalines.
Why a chameleon?
The chameleon seemed to me ideal to accompany this tourmaline bi-color. This animal has the natural ability to change color. The idea of thinking that this skillful acrobat can change color as he moves from one side to the other is a very interesting one. Maybe one day I'll do the full chameleon transition, it could be fun!
If you'd like to see the complete series, check out my Instagram account @veronicacyrot_bijoux
See you soon for the next stone!
