The Garnet Family

Garnet is a lovely red gemstone which so often gets used in dress jewellery but sadly gets forgotten when it comes to engagement rings, wedding rings and eternity rings.

Garnet’s have a hardness of 6 ½ – 7 ½ on the Mohs scale and a cubic crystal system, making them durable as well as beautiful! Their lustre can vary from vitreous to adamantine to resinous… so there is plenty of choice. They are often called ‘carbuncles’ as they are quite common in cabochon cuts. They can be a great option for your wedding rings as they can be sourced in most colours except for blue! It has been used since the Bronze Age and was a popular adornment in the late Roman period. They can be sourced from Tanzania, Kenya, Brazil, Argentine, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Madagascar, Switzerland, Namibia, Mali, Scandinavia and Russia… to name a few!

They can be a good indicator of diamond deposits as they can form in similar conditions! Garnet engagement rings, unlike most gemstones do not undergo treatments for enhancement and can be fairly good value for money… so its good news for anyone struggling with their engagement ring budget. Be careful though as today you can also find garnet topped doublets which are used to mimic different gemstones e.g. green glass to imitate emerald and blue glass to imitate blue sapphire.

Rhodalite
This variety has a lovely violet-rose colour and usually comes from North Carolina! Its name is actually derived from the Greek for ‘a rose’. It tends to have very few inclusions and has a composition between pyrope and almandine.

Spessartine
Its name comes from a district of Bavaria in Germany, and is also known as spessartite. The purest colour is bright orange, however it can range from red to a rich dark orange. ‘Fanta’ colour is very rare and high gem quality stones are quite rare. Mandarin garnet is very sought after! It has inclusions with a feather or lace appearance and is often mistaken for yellow topaz or hessonite. Gems are usually in brilliant, step and cabochon cuts.

Almandine
They tend to be a darker red than pyrope, colours tend to range from pinky-red to deep-violet red, to black. They are the hardest type of garnet, however they do tend to be included. Their name is derived from the Latin for ‘burning coal’, however they do go by several names including almandite, oriental garnet and almandine ruby. You can occasionally get displays of asterism when they are cut en cabochon! It is supposed to warm the heart and relive symptoms of melancholy. It is believed that Noah hung these in the arch to disperse light for the animals!

Uvarovite
This is a very rare variety of garnet that is often used in brilliant cuts and drusys (as they are very fragile). It has a bright green colour due to the presence of chromium. They are often sourced from serpentine rocks and can be found in Italy, Russia, Finland and Turkey

Hessonite (Grossular)
They have a lovely orange-brown colour due to the presence of manganese and iron inclusions. It has amazing swirly ‘molasses’ inclusions of apatite crystals. This was a very popular gemstone with the Ancient Romans. It is also known as the cinnamon stone and is usually cut into brilliant and mixed cuts.