Garnet - The Birthstone of January

Posted by Sandra M. Parsons on January 19, 2020

GARNETS - THE BIRTHSTONE OF JANUARY

Garnet comes in an extraordinary variety of beautiful colors - not just red!

Prized as an ancient talisman for protection on the battlefield,

garnet is also known as the gemstone of love and passion.

Lore and legends claim garnet

is known to bring health, wealth and happiness to its wearers.

Garnet comes in many colors, and I love them all - emerald green tsavorite

garnet, hessonite garnet with its rich caramel colors,

pinky plum rhodolite garnet, olive green garnet,

scarlet, crimson pyrope garnet, orange mandarin garnet, spessarite garnet,

almondine garnet and uvarovite garnet.

This strand of garnet rondelles

shows some of the many

beautiful colors garnet comes

in - from light golden

shades to lavenders and

deep plums.

While red is the most traditional color garnet is known for,

ranging in shades from burgundy to browns to reds that rival rubies,

generally the green and orange varieties can be the most valuable.

Garnets can be found in almost every color, including colorless;

there is even a color change variety!

This can make identifying garnets confusing.

Garnets are one of the most complex gems in the world

with numerous species and varieties.

The five or six most important species are generally pyrope, almandine,

spessarite (spessartine), grossular, andradite and uvarovite.

Most of the garnets we know are blends of these species,

and they have their own unique names.

Rhodolite garnet is loved for its mulberry, plum pink color

in all of its shade ranges.

hessonite garnet, rhodolite garnet, olive quartz chandelier earrings mixed metal

rhodolite garnet, amethyst rose gold chandelier earrings

Rhodolite garnet is a blend of almandine and pyrope garnet.

In the earrings on the right, I have mixed rhodolite garnet with amethyst,

tsavorite garnet, mandarin garnet and more.

In the earrings on the left, I have mixed rhodolite garnet with hessonite garnet

and olive quartz.

Hessonite garnet is a variety

of the grossular garnet

species. It comes in shades

ranging from yellow-orange

to reddish-orange to

caramel shades and browns.

Thus it is also known as

"cinnamon stone".

I love how this warm golden and caramel gemstone

mixes with other colorful gemstones.

multi gemstone chandelier earrings with hessonite garnet and olive quartz colorful

In this pair of chandelier earrings

I have mixed hessonite garnet with

olive quartz briolettes as well as

rondelles of rhodolite garnet and

green vesuvianite mixed in

with a few peacock pearls.

Another one of my favorite garnets is tsavorite garnet!

I love its vibrant, cheerful green color for mixing with other gemstones.

I find it useful to mix in jewelry for all seasons: it is perfect to mix with reds for

the winter Christmas holidays, with pinks and yellows for spring/summer

weddings, and it is especially lovely mixed with autumn hued gemstones.

Ruby Cluster and Tsavorite Garnet Earrings

Tsavorite has one of the most intense and vivid green colors

of any gemstone. Some interesting facts about this variety of garnet are

that it is never treated nor altered to improve its color and

that it is 200 times rarer than emerald.

It was also discovered in Tanzania in 1967 as was tanzanite!

Another favorite garnet I love to

use in jewelry is mandarin

garnet, a pure orange variety of

spessarite garnet. It has a

vibrant inner fire that brings life

to any gem mix.

This pair of hoop chandelier earrings have been created

in oxidized sterling silver

to highlight these beautiful garnet gemstones

in many of their colors!

In the center are green garnets;

centering the bottoms of the hoops are

mulberry hued rhodolite garnets,

flanked by mystic hessonite briolettes and

followed by more hessonite garnet onion briolettes.

You can see some of the amazing jewel tone hues

garnet can be found in.

Mandarin garnet is used in the clusters

of these pearl earrings mixing

with Ethiopian opals, citrine

gemstones, yellow

sapphires, crystal quartz and

lots of tiny pearls.

pond slime pearls with gemstone clusters with mandarin garnet

Sunstone, mandarin garnet, rutilated quartz Jewelry set in rose gold

Mandarin garnets are used in

the clusters of this jewelry

set, mixing with sunstone,

pink sapphires and Madiera

citrine over rutilated quartz

briolettes on rose gold filled wires.

Rich, regal, red garnet is always

a favorite! As mentioned before,

very expensive red garnets can rival

rubies for their beauty and color.

I love to use red garnets with mixed metals of oxidized silver and gold

as well as with moonstones and other colors of garnet.

red garnet moonstone hoop earrings gold fill statement earrings

One day I hope to find varieties of the color change garnets,

particularly the blue garnets that change to red with purple!

In the meantime, the best way to clean garnet jewelry is with

warm water, mild detergent and a soft bristle toothbrush,

never with high heat or machine cleaners.

~ ~ ~

SHOP OUR GARNET JEWELRY COLLECTION

https://doolittlejewelry.com/collections/garnet-jewelry-january-birthstone-jewelry

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What's on the bench? Garnet Earrings in progess -

rose cut rhodolite garnets (love this color, did I say that before?)

and rose cut diamonds are being set in 22 kt gold bezels

on sterling silver back sheet. They will probably dangle

from attached gold French hooks and have a fancy

treatment to finish the bezels. Stay tuned....

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