I Am in Love With All the Colors of Garnet

Wanna know what one of my favorite gemstones is?

Garnet.

Yep, garnet.  Why?

Oh garnet, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways:

1) Rhodolite, 2)Spessartite, 3)Alamandite, 4) Pyrope, 5) Mali, 6) Demantoid, 7) Malaya, 8) Tsavorite, 9) Grossularite, 10)Hessonite, 11) Ant Hill, 12) Color-change, and 13) Star.

That enough for you?  I know, that made absolutely no sense, and as you read that your brain just heard the teacher from the Peanuts cartoons, but let me explain a bit.

Most gemstones have varieties.  Pink sapphire and blue sapphire, for example, are varieties of sapphire.

Well, garnet has soooo many varieties gemologists decided to classify them by family first, then variety.  Whether you know it or not, most people are familiar with the pyrope family.  Pyrope garnets cover most of the pink to red to purplish colored garnets, but did you know there are also color change garnets?  Grossularite garnets are another family.  Grossularite garnets come in two varieties, tsavorite and hessonite.  Tsavorite garnets are a beautiful green color, while hessonites tend to be orange to orangy-red to reddish-brown.

Uh-huh, I see that glazed look in your eye.  What does that mean for you?  Colors.  Lots and lots of colors.  Garnets, of course, can be red, but they can come in just about any color.  They come in purples, greens, oranges, pinks, and yellows and the ranges within those colors are mind-boggling.  Blue is the rarest color, they decided that sapphires did blue so well they would just keep blue for the color change varieties. (Yes, there was a meeting.)  

Garnets are also fairly durable.  They’re not as hard a sapphire, but they ain’t too bad.

One of the big things I like?  Price.  With the range of colors available they aren’t nearly as pricey as sapphire can be.  Pretty much any color you want you can find in garnet and not break the bank!

Head on over to my online shop and you can see some amazingly fantastic garnet jewelry for yourself!

Talk to you soon,

Nikki

P.S.  Most of my work is one of a kind so while you’re there make sure you sign up for my email list!  I’ll let you know when new work is available!