Jewel & Jewel

Types of Garnet
ALMANDINE  Fe3Al2(SiO4)3       reddish brown to brown 
ANDRADITE  Ca3Fe2(SiO4)3       brown, black or green
GROSSULAR  Ca3Al2(SiO4)3      colorless, orange or green 
PYROPE  Mg3Al2(SiO4)3              dark red to ruby red
SPESSARTINE  Mn3Al2(SiO4)3    orange, pink or brown 
UVAROVITE  Ca3Cr2(SiO4)3       green

Common Garnet varieties:

• Pyrope (also called Bohemian garnet, or Cape ruby) is the best know of all garnets.  This gem is a deep rich red.  This gem is very inexpensive.
• Rhodolite: Raspberry red to dark bubble gem pink.   Prices are nicely affordable.
• Umbalite:  Pink to peachy pink. Hard to find and can be costly.
• Hessonite: Rich burnt orange to reddish orange.  These can get pricey for gems over 1 carat in size.
• Spessartite: Red with flashes of orange. Can be dark with brown undertones.  Medium price range
• Mandarine: Fantastic bright orange.  Rare and pricey. 
• Mali: medium green-yellow (chartreuse) color
• Tsavorite:  Bright green. These gems are becoming extremely popular and prices continues to rise.  Tsavorite is usually not found in large sizes. Gems above 2 carats are rare and can run into the thousands of dollars.  
• Demantoid: Light green, yellow green, yellow brown.  Not found in large sizes. Gems above 2 carats are rare and can run into many thousands of dollars.  

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Aquamarine is a fascinatingly beautiful gemstone. Women the world over love it for its fine blue shades which can complement almost any skin or eye colour, and creative gemstone designers are inspired by it as they are by hardly any other gem, which enables them to create new artistic cuts again and again.

Its light blue arouses feelings of sympathy, trust, harmony and friendship. Good feelings. Feelings which are based on mutuality and which prove their worth in lasting relationships. The blue of aquamarine is a divine, eternal colour, because it is the colour of the sky. However, aquamarine blue is also the colour of water with its life-giving force. And aquamarine really does seem to have captured the lucid blue of the oceans. No wonder, when you consider that according to the saga it originated in the treasure chest of fabulous mermaids, and has, since ancient times, been regarded as the sailors’ lucky stone. Its name is derived from the Latin ‘aqua’ (water) and ‘mare’ (sea). It is said that its strengths are developed to their best advantage when it is placed in water which is bathed in sunlight. However, it is surely better still to wear aquamarine, since according to the old traditions this promises a happy marriage and is said to bring the woman who wears it joy and wealth into the bargain. An ideal gem, not only for loving and married couples.

A gemstone with many good qualities

Aquamarine is one of our most popular and best-known gemstones, and distinguishes itself by many good qualities. It is almost as popular as the classics: ruby, sapphire and emerald. In fact it is related to the emerald, both belonging to the beryl family. The colour of aquamarine, however, is usually more even than that of the emerald. Much more often than its famous green cousin, aquamarine is almost entirely free of inclusions. Aquamarine has good hardness (7.5 to 8 on the Mohs scale) and a wonderful shine. That hardness makes it very tough and protects it to a large extent from scratches.

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Of all the precious gemstones, diamonds have for years, been typically considered to be the most precious and valued of all the precious gemstones. Diamonds usually range in colors from yellow to bluish white and be found from very small to very large. Other precious stone used for jewelry include rubies, emeralds, and sapphires as well as the less expensive stones, chrysoberyl, topaz, and zircon. Among gemstones considered to be semiprecious stones, the most common gemstones used for jewelry include, amethyst, garnet, opal, aquamarine, jade , turquoise, agate, onyx, lapis lazuli, and malachite.

Gemstones that originate from animals or organic instead of mineral, and are considered to be organic stones, include amber, which is a fossil of tree resin, as well as pearls and corals. To be considered a gemstone, the stone must be one of the 2,000 identified naturally occurring minerals that are valued for their rarity, beauty, and durability. Out of these 2,000 identified minerals, only around 100 of them are actually used as gemstones, and a few 16 of them have achieved a notability of importance. These minerals, though one may supply more than one gemstone, include beryl, chrysoberyl, corundum, diamond, feldspar, garnet, jade, lazurite, olivine, opal, quartz, spinel, topaz, tourmaline, turquoise, and zircon. As an example, the mineral Beryl supplies the gemstones emerald and aquamarine, and corundum supplies ruby and sapphire gemstones. Before being used for jewelry, all of these minerals will have to first be cut and polished in order for them to be usable.

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