If you love jewelry and gemstones , you should own at least some garnets.
People born in January are lucky enough to have garnets as their designated gemstone.
Garnets are found all around the world. Gem quality garnets are more rare. Garnets are one of the less expensive of the natural gemstones. And they are hard and durable enough to be worn as "every day jewelry".
You probably know garnets for the many different colors of red.
Natural garnets are much more versatile - pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, purples, blues, clear, brown and even black!
Compared to Ruby/Emerald/Sapphire, Garnets are a relatively inexpensive natural gemstone.
But the rare garnets can be quite expensive - green Tsavorites, black Melanites, green Russian Demantoids, color change garnets, blue garnets.
The garnet group includes a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. The name "garnet" may come from either the Middle English word gernet meaning 'dark red', or the Latin granatus ("grain"), possibly a reference to the Punica granatum ("pomegranate"), a plant with red seeds similar in shape, size, and color to some garnet crystals.
Six common species of garnet are recognized by their chemical composition. They are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone and tsavorite), uvarovite and andradite. The garnets make up two solid solution series: 1. pyrope-almandine-spessarite and 2. uvarovite-grossular-andradite.
Recent Comments