inclusions, photomicrography, gems

De Goutière presents a brief photographic essay celebrating the visual interest of gemstone inclusions through three colour photomicrographs of two specimens. The emphasis is on the striking patterns revealed by microscopic observation and their resemblance to recognizable scenes or abstract compositions. The first photograph shows a thin film within a light green beryl crystal that has been ground to a thickness of 1 mm. Its intricate, multicoloured forms are likened to a tropical garden containing a palm tree and butterflies. Branching and fan-like details occupy a broad field of yellow, blue, green, and violet, with darker areas framing the composition. The comparison concerns the appearance of the photographed inclusion rather than the presence of biological material. The remaining two photographs depict unusual tubular inclusions in a 0.07 ct round brilliant-cut diamond. In one view, bright, angular, tube-like forms appear among the stone’s reflected facet patterns and several dark rounded features. The accompanying caption humorously compares their extraordinary configuration to uncontrolled laser drilling. A second photograph presents a pavilion view of the same diamond, revealing the network from another direction. Here the tubes form a conspicuous labyrinth of straight segments and sharp changes in direction against contrasting bright and dark areas. De Goutière characterizes the effect as natural abstract art, using the change of viewpoint to present a different composition within the same small gemstone. The editorial introduction places these photographs within an ongoing presentation of the author’s work with camera and microscope and frames the specimens as subjects created by nature. The contribution is descriptive and pictorial: it provides the host materials, the preparation thickness of the beryl, and the weight and cut of the diamond, but does not identify the thin film’s composition, explain the tubular inclusions’ formation, or supply magnification and illumination details. Its central purpose is to demonstrate the aesthetic possibilities of inclusions and the distinctive internal images that gem photomicrography can reveal.