 The
oranges of autumn leaves, the glowing red coals of a winter
fire, the sparkling green of a summer field, and the beautiful
pinks and of spring flowers, garnet is a gemstone for all
seasons. Garnets are a closely related group of gemstones
that are available in every color. Dark reds, tangerine orange,
vivid lime green, soft bluish-pink, garnet is all these colors
and more.
 There
are garnets that change color in different light, translucent
green garnets that look like jade,
garnets with stars, garnets that have been mined for thousands
of years and garnets that were just discovered in the last
decade.
 Garnets
have long been carried by travellers to protect against
accidents far from home.
In ancient Asia and the American Southwest, garnets were
used as bullets because the glowing red color was said to
increase the ferocity of a wound. Garnets in legend light
up the night and protect their owners from nightmares. Noah
used a garnet lantern to navigate the Ark at night. The
ancient world is full of praise for the carbuncle, the glowing
red coal of a gemstone we now know as garnet.
The name garnet probably comes
from pomegranate. Many ancient pieces
of garnet jewelry are studded with tiny red stones that
do look a lot like a cluster of pomegranate seeds! Jewelry
set with garnets from Czechoslovakia was extremely popular
in the nineteenth century and Bohemian garnet jewelry is
still popular today, although today the garnets are mined
elsewhere. When you say garnet, most people think automatically
of small dark red gemstones, even though this is only one
aspect of the world of garnets.
 Garnet
is the birthstone for January, which means that January
babies have a lot of choices! Varieties available, some
mineral differences and some color descriptions, include
rhodolite, malaya, demantoid, grossular, hessonite, spessartite,
hessonite, almandine, mandarin, and combinations between
these varieties.
 One
of the most popular is rhodolite garnet, which ranges from
pink to purplish red in color and is mined in Africa, India,
and Sri Lanka. Tsavorite garnet is a bright yellow green
to grass green, and is mined in Tanzania and Kenya. Legendary
demantoid garnet combines a bright green with dazzling brilliance
that won over the Tsars of Russia, who used it lavishly.
In the past, demantoid garnet was only ever available in
small sizes and was extremely rare, but a new deposit was
found in 1998 in Namibia, southern Africa. However, it is
still quite rare today.
Malaya garnet, another popular
mixed variety, ranges from orange to gold and is mined in
Tanzania and Kenya. Pyrope garnet is a very saturated red:
beautiful small pyrope garnets found in Arizona are called
anthill garnet because they are mined by ants, who carry
them up when they are excavating their anthills.
One garnet growing in popularity
is a newly discovered garnet from Namibia, which is a bright
orange spessartite, is called mandarin garnet because its
color is a true orange. Hessonite and Spessarite garnets
mostly come in golds and oranges and browns that are sometimes
called cinnamon garnets. Grossular, the variety of garnets
that gives us tsavorite, also is available in pale pinks
and greens and yellows.
Garnets are fairly hard and
durable gemstones that are ideal for jewelry use, except
for demantoid, which is softer and requires more protection.
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