Garnets

Many people think of them as that deep-red gemstone you often find in jewelry? For the most part this is the most frequently see color. However, far too few people are aware that the world of the garnets is far more colorful than that. Garnet is a group of more than ten different gemstones of similar chemical composition. It is true to say that red is the color most often encountered, but the garnet also exists in various shades of green, a tender to intense yellow, a fiery orange and some fine earth-colored nuances. The only color it cannot offer is blue. 

Garnets are much sought-after and much worked gemstones - the more so because today it is not only the classical gemstone colors red and green which are so highly esteemed, but also the fine hues in between. Furthermore, the world of the garnets is also rich in rarities such as star garnets and stones whose color changes depending on whether they are seen in daylight or artificial light.
 

 

Grossular Garnet Carving of Budda

Garnets are also found in jewelry from early Egyptian, Greek and Roman times.  Today, science has taught us that the garnet's proverbial luminosity comes from its high refractive index.

Not only do garnets have many colors; they also have many names: Almandine, Andradite, Demantoid, Grossularite, Hessonite, Pyrope, Rhodolite, Tsavorith, Spessartine, and Uvarovite, and the list goes on. But if we restrict ourselves to the most important and begin with the red garnets. Red Pyrope. Its spirited red, often with a slight brownish nuance, was a gemstone color much in demand in the 18th and 19th centuries.

'Almandines', named after Alabanda, an ancient city, have a chemical composition that differs somewhat from that of the Pyrope.

Rhodolite A further garnet variety, also red, is the mixed crystal of almandine and Pyrope. This popular garnet is of a magnificent velvety red with a fine violet or raspberry-red undertone. Originally found in the USA, it now comes mainly from the gemstone mines in East Africa, India and Sri Lanka.

 

 

Spessartite Garnet

 

The shape of the raw crystals is also interesting. Garnet means something like 'the grainy one', coming from the Latin 'Granum', for grain. This makes reference not only to the typical roundish shape of the crystals, but also to the color of the red garnet, which often puts one in mind of the seeds of a ripe pomegranate.

 

 

Merelani Mint Garnet

 

Garnets are considered a Type 2 gemstone.

 

Type 2 Description: Usually eye clean except for larger stones witch may have some eye visible inclusions.

 

 

Almandine Garnet in Schist