Indigo Gabbro Designer Cut Cabochon

This nicely domed cabochon of Indigo Gabbro (a/k/a Merlinite) has a great pattern of black and indigo violet patches with flashes of moonstone-like iridescence, particular when viewed in sunlight. The color is dark but definitely purple and very unique. I've wanted to cut some of this material for a while and finally picked a a little rough and was taken with the changing nature of this material from shadow to light, especially sunlight. Definitely eye-catching and unusual. Great inspiration for your next project.

Indigo Gabbro Designer Cut Cabochon
49.5 x 20.2 x 6.9mm
58.6 cts.

I cut this cab by hand and it's been polished to a high sheen both front and back with slightly rounded bottom edges for easy setting.

Note that all my photos were taken using full spectrum lighting, which does fairly well in replicating natural sunlight. However, almost all cut stones will look best and brightest in direct sunlight.

Coming out of Madagascar beginning only a few years ago, this relatively new entry into the lapidary world has an amazing array of colors from light indigo purple to black and displays moonstone-like “flashes” across the surface when changing the angle of viewing. Indigo Gabbro, also referred to as “Merlinite”, has found a strong following in the metaphysical field. It is said to have a very good energy when held in your hand. Essentially, Indigo Gabbro is a combination of multiple minerals which generally include feldspar, chlorite and serpentine formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools into a crystalline mass, generally coarse grained, with crystals in the size range of 1 mm or greater. The more common and generalized term Gabbro really refers material is a much more common material, which often contains valuable amounts of chromium, nickel, cobalt, gold, silver, platinum, and copper sulfides. The majority of the Earth's surface is underlain by gabbro within the oceanic crust, produced by basalt magmatism at mid-ocean ridges.