January's Birthstone: Gorgeous Garnet!

January's Birthstone: Gorgeous Garnet!

Let's hear it for garnet, January's birthstone! 

Garnet's amazing colors

As stunning as raspberry red and ruby red garnets can be, there is so much more to the garnet story! This gemstone's rarer variants in shades of orange, green and purple are too little known yet very much prized.  Among the most difficult to find (and very pricey!) are tsavorite garnet (a rich green hue), grape garnet (think grape jelly) and spessartite garnet (a vibrant orange).  

As a jewelry maker with a distinct fondness for bold, saturated tones, the garnets I most love to work with are the "classic" deep crimson red, a more pink (rhodolite) raspberry red, and a delicious member of the garnet family called hessonite, which ranges in color from golden honey to spicy cinnamon.

In fact, hessonite is known as the cinnamon stone.

Hessonite's allure

I admit to a special fondness for hessonite garnet, and when able to source it in superior grades, I revel in designing with it. After all, hessonite's hues seem almost edible! Moreover, they are shown to advantage with both gold and silver, working beautifully with cool color tones as in this example of sterling, aquamarine and hessonite earrings (below).

Hessonite garnet is equally at home with gold, its frequently fiery tones generating a complementary element of visual energy.  When I'm looking to turn up the heat in my designs, I love mixing hessonite with amethyst.

And who doesn't want more heat in January?

Fun facts about garnet

  • Although we refer to garnet as if it were a single stone, it is actually a grouping of minerals with similar characteristics and specific varieties, found across the globe.
  • In addition to its marvelous gamut of colors, garnet is a favorite in jewelry design given its excellent durability (6.5 to 7.5 on the Mohs Scale), which means it stands up well to daily wear.
  • Garnet jewelry was worn as far back as the days of ancient Egypt and Rome. Can't you just picture Roman consuls with their garnet signet rings?

Symbolism? Spiritual meaning?

As for the symbolic and spiritual meaning of January’s birthstone, garnet is thought to encourage health and vitality, as well as resilience and clarity – appropriate for the sort of new beginnings that we all strive for at the start of the year. 

And naturally, the beautiful red shades of our most recognizable varieties of garnet can’t help but remind of us of love. 

By the way...

And by the way… two of the world’s most renowned mid-century visual artists were born in January – abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell.

If you are unfamiliar with their works, you might enjoy exploring them. Both were masters of abstraction, fearless in terms of color and scale, yet very different in what they created.

 

Jewelry shown above:

 

 

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