January has two Zodiac stones:
January 1st through the 20th : Ruby
January 21st through the 31st : Garnet
Traditional and Modern Birthstone – Garnet – pronounced (gär‘nĭt)
Powers attributed to Garnet: Facilitates night vision, ensures success
This mineral has been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. Today, it is widely known as the birthstone for January. Garnets are most often seen in red, but are available in a wide variety of colors spanning the entire spectrum. The name “garnet” comes from the Latin granatus (“grain”), possibly a reference to the pomegranate a fruit with red seeds similar in shape, size, and color to some garnet crystals. There are six varieties of garnet. They are pyrope, almandine or carbuncle, spessartite, grossularite (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-grossularite-andradite.
Appearance Garnets are available in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, and colorless. The rarest of these is the blue garnet, discovered in the late 1990s in Bekily, Madagascar. 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.
Hardness Mohs Scale of about 6.5 to 7.5. The harder varieties, like almandite, are often used for abrasive purposes
Almandite – (ăl’mən-dīt’) Almandite, sometimes called almandine (pronounced (ăl‘mən-dēn’)), is the modern gem known as carbuncle (though originally almost any red gemstone was known by this name). The term “carbuncle” is derived from the Latin meaning “little spark.” The name Almandite is a corruption of Alabanda, a region in Asia Minor where these stones were cut in ancient times. The deep red transparent stones are often called precious garnet and are used as gemstones (being the most common of the gem garnets Almandite has nicknames of Oriental garnet, almandine ruby, and carbuncle.
Pyrope – (pī‘rōp’) This type of garnet called “pyrope” is found in Macon County, North Carolina and is a violet-red shade and has been called rhodolite (pronounced (rōd‘l-īt’)), from the Greek meaning “a rose.” Pyrope has nicknames of Cape ruby, Arizona ruby, California ruby, Rocky Mountain ruby, and Bohemian garnet from the Czech Republic. Another intriguing find is the blue color-change garnets from Madagascar, a pyrope spessatine mix. The color of these blue garnets is not like sapphire blue in subdued daylight but more reminiscent of the grayish blues and greenish blues sometimes seen in spinel However in white LED light the color is equal to the best corn flower blue sapphire or D block tanzanite this is due to the blue garnets ability to absorb the yellow component of the emitted light.
Spessartite – pronounced (spĕs‘ər-tīt’) Spessartite or spessartine (pronounced (spĕs‘ər-tēn’)) is manganese aluminum garnet. Its name is derived from Spessart in Bavaria. It occurs most often in granite pegmatite and allied rock types and in certain low grade metamorphic phyllites. Spessartite of a beautiful orange-yellow is found in Madagascar (these stones found in Africa are sometime called Mandarin garnets). Violet-red spessartites are found in rhyolites in Colorado and Maine.
Andradite – pronounced (ăn-drä‘dīt) Andradite is a calcium-iron garnet, and may be red, yellow, brown, green or black. The recognized sub varieties are topazolite (yellow or green), demantoid (green) and melantite (black). Demantoid has been called the “emerald of the Urals” from its occurrence there, and is one of the most prized of garnet varieties. Topazolite (pronounced (tə-păz‘ə-līt’)) is a golden yellow variety and melanite is a black variety.
Grossularite – pronounced (grŏs’yə-lə-rīt’) Also called Grossular pronounced (grŏs’yə-lə-lər) Grossularite is a calcium-aluminum garnet. The name grossularite is derived from the botanical name for the gooseberry, grossularia, in reference to the green garnet of this composition that is found in Siberia. Other shades include cinnamon brown (cinnamon stone variety), red, and yellow. Because of its inferior hardness to zircon, which the yellow crystals resemble, The Yellowish brown colored variety is called hessonite (pronounced (hĕs‘ə-nīt’)) from the Greek meaning inferior. One of the most sought after varieties of gem garnet is the fine green grossular garnet from Kenya and Tanzania called tsavorite. This garnet was discovered in the 1960s in the Tsavo area of Kenya, from which the gem takes its name. Here are a few of our jewelry pieces for January Babies.
