January 's Birthstone is the Garnet

These rich red gems have long been prized by ancient peoples of Samaria and Egypt, Scandinavia and Greece, having been discovered in Bronze Age talismans and millennia-old signet rings. Bearing supposed medicinal purposes, the stone was buried with mummies to protect the dead and illuminate the passing of the soul; and kept close as a curative for poisons in the Middle Ages.

Garnet is considered to be a powerful purifier of the body’s energies, cleansing toxins from both physical form and spirit. Within its renewing embrace, one’s soul may be healed, or a broken relationship mended and intensified.

Legend states that Noah hung garnet in the rafters of the Ark to light his path during his dark and troubled times. Eastern Indians rubbed garnet across their bodies to gain its glowing qualities, and the Mayans and Aztecs used garnet to heal and enlighten their people.

 

Alaskan Garnet in Matrix	Faceted Garnets set into Silver

Not all Garnet is red!  Above is Green Garnet from West Africa

Zanzibar sells a wide selection of fine Garnet jewelry, including Garnet Earrings, Garnet Pendants, Garnet Necklaces and Garnet Bracelets, starting under $25.00 

The garnet group includes a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. The name "garnet" comes from the Latin granatus ("grain"), possibly a reference to the Punica granatum ("pomegranate"), a plant with red seeds similar in shape, size, and color to some garnet crystals.

While many people think a garnet is a garnet, there are actually six common types of garnet that are recognized based on their chemical composition. They are pyrope, almandine, spessartite, grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone and tsavorite), uvarovite and andradite. The garnets make up two solid solution series: 1. pyrope-almandine-spessarite and 2. uvarovite-grossular-andradite.

Visit our gallery to see dozens of earrings, pendants, bracelets and necklaces set in sterling silver with the finest garnet stones.

Garnets species are found in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink and colorless. The rarest of these is the blue garnet, discovered in the late 1990s in Bekily, Madagascar. It is also found in parts of the United States, Russia and Turkey. It changes color from blue-green in the daylight to purple in incandescent light, as a result of the relatively high amounts of vanadium (about 1 wt.% V2O3). Other varieties of color-changing garnets exist. In daylight, their color ranges from shades of green, beige, brown, gray, and blue, but in incandescent light, they appear a reddish or purplish/pink color. Because of their color changing quality, this kind of garnet is often mistaken for Alexandrite.

Garnet species’s light transmission properties can range from the gemstone-quality transparent specimens to the opaque varieties used for industrial purposes as abrasives. The mineral’s luster is categorized as vitreous (glass-like) or resinous (amber-like).