Get to know Garnet!

January babies get to call garnet their birthstone and how lucky they are. Garnets are one of my favorite stones due to their intensity of color and brilliance. The most prized are bright green or orange with intriguing names like tsavorite, mandarin, and spessartite. And some even possess inclusions that look like “horse tails’, as seen in demantoid garnets, making these the most valuable of all.

You are probably most familiar with the red variety of garnet called pyrope. But don’t forget about its purplish red cousin, rhodolite, with colors ranging from Bordeaux to grape.

Garnet is a hard stone making them durable, luminous, and brilliant.

At Mejia Jewelry, I use garnets in our limited-edition peek-a-boo-hoops using mandarin and tsavorite garnet bullet cabochons. These earrings are customizable in different color golds and gemstones. Contact me with custom requests.

Mandarin garnet is my all-time favorite gemstone. They are very rare and highly desirable due to their eye-catching orange color, brilliance, and hardness.

Discovered in the 1990’s in Namibia, mandarin garnet is found as nodules of orange juiciness. The original mine produced an intense reddish orange that has since become exhausted. Newer mines from Nigeria and Tanzania produce this vivid brightly prized gemstone. The high concentration of manganese (Mn) gives them their striking color.

Used as a small accent in the peek-a-boo hoop earrings, although small in size, only 3 mm, they pack a large punch with their brightness..

Email me to learn more about the peek-a-boo hoops or to create a custom piece with this fascinating gemstone.