There is so much more to garnets than the commonly known dark red form. I have begun to collect some gorgeous examples - premium shaded green Tsavorite is illustrated here, paired with rainbow moonstone.
Here's the entry from my own Materials Index:
Garnet: Refers to a group of silicate minerals with similar crystal structures.
Types:
Almandine and pyrope types blend to form the common dark red garnet. May be dye enhanced. Spessartite - somewhat rare - the most valuable types are a bright orange red.
Grossular - light to medium tone, found in every color except blue
Hessonite - an orange to pinkish orange variety of grossular
Tsavorite - deep chromium green variety of grossular
Hydrogrossular - translucent to opaque, commonly blue-green, used as a jade substitute.
Uvarovite - rarest of the garnet family - a dark rich green.
Andradite - one of the rarest garnets - dematoid is the highly sought after green variety
Hardness: 6.5-7.5
Care: Generally sturdy and trouble free - normal gemstone care.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Tsavorite Garnet
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