Is Tsavorite basically green garnet?

[innerkitten]

I saw a lovely little victorian ring with what were said to be green garnets.
I''ve only ever seen a garnet in red and when I did a search online for green garnets the word tsavorite kept coming up.

-Kitten

 

[winyan]

Hi Kitten..

I have a tsavorite in wg wedding band style ring, and yes, tsavorite are green garnets. I usually wear it w/my peach diamond.

win

 

[innerkitten]

with a peach diamond, wow ! that sounds like a great color combination. The ring I was looking at had small green garnets with turquoise. I really liked the colors together.

 

[valeria101]

Garnet colors... are everything but blue

Tsavorite is the most widely available of the green garnets but it does have a more spectacular, expensive and esteemed brother, the Demantoid garnet.

If you like browsing the Net for gems, there is a whole list of garnets of different colors, most present among the gem categories at, say, Multicolor.com or Palagems.

'Key words' like: Spessatite, Mali garnet, Malaya Garnet (and something called "Imperial Malaya"), Tsavorite, Demantoid, Rhodolite, Almandine, Andralite, Pyrope, Color Change, Grossular(ite), Hessonite, Uvavorite come to mind first, but I would by no means bet this is the whole list. Colorless garnet (usually grossular) is sometimes called "Leuco garnet". These are chemically different things, with similar physical properties and the generic name of "garnet".

Have fun

 

[Richard M.]

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On 3/11/2004 11:42:58 AM innerkitten wrote:

I saw a lovely little victorian ring with what were said to be green garnets.

-Kitten----------------

If the ring is truly of Victorian age, not a modern reproduction, the green garnets (if genuine) are probably Russian demantoid. Tsavorite was not introduced to the gem market until the 1970s when it was discovered in Kenya and Tanzania.

There are three green garnet species: demantoid (green andradite), tsavorite (green grossular) and uvarovite. Unfortunately the deep chrome garnet uvarovite is found only as druzes of crystals too small to facet, as in the image. Uvarovite druzes are a by-product of chromium mining in Russia and are becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Richard M.

 

[katbadness]

Nice one, Richard M.

And thank you for the explanation. I have come across uvarovite jewelry before, like this below, and I've always wondered what they are.

.

The img came from Jewelry Expert's website.

I didn't know that uvarovite is a type of garnet. Very cool. I learn something new today.