gemstones

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Monday, January 4, 2010

The Ultimate in Semi Precious Gems - Fabulous Garnet Gemstones!

Not all the colors of garnet were identified thousands of years ago. Some have only recently been discovered and identified.

Rare Gemstones
For example, Spessartite garnet has been around for a long time, but they were very rare. Not too many years ago there was a fantastic find of radiant orange / red spessartite garnets in Namibia (sometimes sold under the trade name “mandarin garnet”). They were much coveted because the mine was only able to be worked for a few years and no one knew if there would ever be any more. The Namibian find was followed a few years later by a find in Nigeria. The two colors and the brilliance of the gemstones from the two areas are so close that only experienced specialists can tell the subtle difference.

Faceted Gemstones
And then there is the grossular (sometime called grossularite) garnet. This family of green garnets covers everything from tones of soft yellow to deep green and brown and is highly valued for its hues and earth colors.

Mali garnets are yellow to greenish yellow to yellowish brown to brown and were discovered in 1994 – talk about “new”. They are a mixture of mostly grossularite and andradite (demantoid) garnet and they are noted for their brilliance and dispersion. Mali garnet is exceptionally rare in sizes over 5 carats.

And tsavorite garnet, a beautiful emerald green gemstone, was only discovered and identified in 1967. At first tsavorite was touted as a great emerald substitute because of its color. I have to chuckle now when I see emeralds advertised as having top tsavorite color. Tsavorite is rare in sizes over 2 carats.

Birthstone Gems and Garnet and Diamond Rings
AfricaGems.com has the rare and beautiful garnet birthstone gems like spessartite, grossular, mali, tsavorite, demantoid, color change garnets and more. Click here to start your search for your perfect garnet. Click here to check out the garnet rings available at AfricaGems.com. And all loose garnet gemstone, garnet gemstone rings and garnet pendants are offered at a 20% birthstone discount during the month of January. Be sure to use the code "garnet2010" at checkout.

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