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Garnet color question

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innerkitten

innerkitten

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I recently purchased a book on colored stones and am starting to be more interested with garnet ( they come in some amazing shades of gold and orange). Can garnets come in the same shades of pink and reds that you see in spinels and rubies? My book says pyrope garnets come in red and pink but gives no photos. Is that just the same dark red that you see in a lot of the bohemian style jewelry ?

I was surprised to find that there is actually some garnet mining done right here in california at a place called Little Three Mine.
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There are dark red to purplish red garnets. I have never seen Pure reds like some spinels and rubies. There is actually a pink garnet called "raspberry garnet" from Mexico. I have ony seen mineral specimens as it is not of gem grade. It is quite beautiful though.

There is another famous mine in the Southern California regions call the Hercules mine and it produces some fabulous orange garnets.

Have you ever seen star garnets?
 
Thanks for the info.
I'll have to look Hercules it up on line.
 
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On 7/10/2004 5:15:17 PM innerkitten wrote:

I recently purchased a book on colored stones and am starting to be more interested with garnet ( they come in some amazing shades of gold and orange). Can garnets come in the same shades of pink and reds that you see in spinels and rubies? My book says pyrope garnets come in red and pink but gives no photos. Is that just the same dark red that you see in a lot of the bohemian style jewelry ?

I was surprised to find that there is actually some garnet mining done right here in california at a place called Little Three Mine.
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There's a type of pink-red garnet known as Rhodolite garnet. I'm actually not certain what type of mineral it is.

The ones I've seen are not pure red like ruby, they tend to have a more pinkish - purplish hue to them, giving a more magenta appearance.

Here's a couple of examples that I can find:
gar725.jpg


and

gar736.jpg
 
If you go to International Colored Stones Assoc's website (www.gemstone.org) and go to their select garnet in their image library, you'd see quite a sample of different types of garnets.

Here's a shortcut to their garnet library.

And here's an example of a red Malaya garnet shown on the library:

garn11.jpg


I hope that helps some. I'm hoping some of the experts would chime in and explain the subject in further depth.
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Garnets come in all the colors of the rainbow, but some of the colors are very rare. They even come in an alexandrite like color change color.

They range from the cheap dark brownish red color stones that we see so much of in antique jewelery to magnificent bright greens and oranges that are startling in their beauty.


Wink
 
Wink, I'll take a look at his stones.
Thanks.
 
And katbadness, that library link is awesome. What a great link.
 
The pics are very nice... but somehow I doubt garnet is that red - maybe very, very seldom. The ones I ever known were either too dark or with too little color saturation to be worthy contenders to what is expected from Ruby of Spinel. But there is always some example to prove me wrong.

Pink garnet is there - but it would be a less saturated red, rather than the hot pink of the best sapphire. To my knowledge, I would expect some pink shade from African rhodolite
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But with how many the sources of garnet are - there is no limit to surprises
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THIS makes an example of what I mean by "pink garnet". Anything better would be very good news!
 
The color of the two posted earlier are beautiful, but I also really like the pink you just posted Valeria. I guess one would have to see some of those red and pink garnets in the flesh to see if they really look like that.
 
Hi,

Garnets are probably the least understood and most underrated of all gemstones. I specialize in them and have spent lots of time studying them. The Little 3 Mine spessartites are among the finest in the world but they aren't as intensely orange-colored as those from Namibia.

It's too late tonight to spend much time at this but yes, there are fine red garnets. They're called "chrome pyropes" and they're colored by chromium just like ruby. The major sources are Arizona and Utah but they're also found here and there around the world. They rival ruby color in small sizes but over5 mm. (depending on pavilion angles) their intense color saturation darkens them to nearly black.

There are also wonderful pink garnets but I've never seen any that rival the finest spinel and sapphire. That doesn't mean they don't exist, just that I've never seen any. Due to their chemistry and a process known as miscibility there is simply no limit to the color combinations possible in garnet. I attach an image of a fine gem I deal in I've named "Royal Rhodolite" as an example of exciting garnet colors. There are many, many more. Learning what they are and where to find them takes a great deal of study. I'll try to come back with more when time allows.

Richard M.

10x8ECGrape2.jpg
 
Hi All,
Any idea about Demantoid and Tsavorite garnets? Appreciation and market condition ? Thanks
 
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On 7/14/2004 3:08:23 PM yenbai wrote:

Hi All,
Any idea about Demantoid and Tsavorite garnets?

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Both make interesting cases... What type of merchandise do you have in mind?
 
Roses are red, violets are blue and until recently garnet came in every color but blue. I say until recently because color change garnets from Madagascar are arguably blue if strongly grayish blue. As to pink, there are a few pink malaya garnets in the world and most rhodolite are more pink, purplish pink than red.

For the jewelry lover there are two types of garnet, hard and soft. Since garnet is a family of cousins rather than brothers and sisters, some garnet is 6.50 of the mohs scale while others border 7.25. Spessartite and tsavorite are hard garnets, almandine and demantoid are soft.

Although soft, demantoid is among the rarest and most desirable. Demantoid is actually, after Zircon, the third most refractive gem. At this momemt there is a fair supply in the market thanks to new discoveries near Ekatinberg in Russia's Ural Mountains. They are not cheap but in the words of Janis Joplin: "get it while you can."
 
Ana, i would like to hear about both materials. I have Tsavorite.
 
Richard M, that is an incredibly nice garnet picture you posted of the large emerald cut. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Here is an orange that I like. Enjoy.

Wink

orangesingle.jpg
 
P.S. The picture is slightly fuzzy because it was taken from a film strip that we will use to show the gem spinning on our website (someday).

It has been Photoshoped only to separate it from the film strip and to reduce it to 72 DPI for internet display, no other modifications have been done.
 
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On 7/10/2004 6:17:49 PM MerKaBa wrote:

There is actually a pink garnet called 'raspberry garnet' from Mexico. I have ony seen mineral specimens as it is not of gem grade. It is quite beautiful though.

Have you ever seen star garnets? ----------------
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Richard Homer has cut some incredibly beautiful raspberry garnets, but I think they were from Africa, not Mexico, you would have to ask him that to know for sure.

Star garnets are found only in two places in the world that I am aware of. Idaho and India. Most of them are opaque and heavily included, but occassionally you find one that is a true gem. Gene Stewart of Stewart's Gem Shop in Boise, Idaho is probably the best source for the Idaho garnets as his father owned the mine. I do not know whether or not the mine is still in family hands, but the only truly nice star garnets I have ever seen were in Gene's shop. He is one of my friendly competitors here in Boise, so if you call him please say that Wink says hello.

Wink, who likes friendly competitors
 
Speaking of star garnets, here's a link to the mine at Emerald Creek, Idaho.

http://www.fs.fed.us/ipnf/rec/activities/garnets/

It's a US Forest Service, fee dig site now and you can mine your own. I just cut some for a local client and, as Wink said, they are mostly dark and included. I can't figure out why they'd name an area that was full of red garnets, Emerald Creek. Any guesses ?
 
Michael,

My guess is that the creek was named "Emerald" for its deep green waters long before anyone gave a hoot about the garnets. Some of the best garnet-producing streams in the area (now off limits) have names like Pee-Wee Creek, Purdue Creek and No-Name Creek. You'll be interested to know that a tributary of Emerald Creek is named Garnet Gulch.

Richard M.
 
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On 7/24/2004 12:42:45 PM Wink wrote:

Richard M, that is an incredibly nice garnet picture you posted of the large emerald cut. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Wink----------------
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Thanks Wink. My pleasure. I like your spessartite too -- I wonder what my garnet would like like in a Homer cut?

Richard M.
 
It would be The Garnet of Dreams. (If you cut it they will come)

Wink
 
Hello!!! I own my first blue garnet!!!! Yes, you have read right, blue garnet, as blue as this text!!! Not blue green, blue blue blue!!!
My garnet is deep blue under sun light and deep red under incandescent lamp light.

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Oh, my blue garnet weight is 1.56 ct
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DID someone say garnets?
 
garnet?! blue?! where did you find this bauble and when will you be posting picture?

movie zombie
 
I have rhodolite garnet earrings and pendant. They are a deep raspberry color and I love them. I agree, garnets are vastly underrated.
 
ah, color change garnet. is there such a thing as a ''blue'' that does not change color?

movie zombie
 
All the "blue" garnets I have seen are color change.

I have just seen a nice parcel of Rhodolites that have a blue flash to them. Spectatular color for rhodolite. These stones came out of Tanzania.
 
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