gemstones

Huge encyclopedia of gemstones

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year to Everyone!

We at AfricaGems Wish All of Our Readers a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous 2010!

What a way to start the New Year – with beautiful colorful garnets, the birthstone of January. January babies are very fortunate because they have so many colors to choose from.

Birthstone Gems
When you mention garnet, most people think of the beautiful deep red garnets. The term “garnet” applies to a collection of 10 different gemstones of similar chemical composition. Garnets come in a rich array of colors. They come in many shades of greens, fiery oranges, tender to intense yellows, purple / raspberry and blue-green color change and the best part is that they are very affordable. And they are very wearable with a Mohs hardness ranging from 6.5 to 7.5.

Red garnets have been used in jewelry from early Greek, Egyptian and Roman times so it is truly a classic. Some think that Noah used a garnet lantern to help him steer the ark through dark nights. Some believe the metaphysical properties of garnet include being the “stone of health” – it helps dissolve negative energy and centers one so that they will be balanced physically, emotionally and spiritually. Garnet is said to foster commitment, devotion, love, stability and order. They are also said to spark creativity and imagination while still grounding dreams in the real world.

Natural Gemstones
One thing that can be a little confusing is the many names of garnets – almandine, andradite, demantoid, grossularite, hessonite, malaia, mali, pyrope, rhodolite, spessartite, tsavorite and uvarovite are the most commonly seen names. But they are all in the garnet family. For example, rhodolite is a mixture of almandine and pyrope crystals which make a fine violet red with raspberry-red undertones. Tsavorite is a type of grossularite green garnet but demantoid and uvarovite garnets are also green. But they are all natural colors of garnet.

AfricaGems.com carries many colors of garnet and as the birthstone of the month they are discounted 20% off their normal very affordable wholesale prices for the entire month of January. Click here to check out our fantastic selection of garnets. And click here to check out our garnet rings, also offered at a 20% discount for the month of January. Be sure to use the code "garnet2010" at checkout.

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