NEW & RARE GARNET COLOR

[blithesome71]

Garnet comes in arrays of colors.... Red, brown, orange, green, pink, yellow, white, etc...

 

[blithesome71]

Sweet pink... & the revolutionary orange beauty...

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

A FEAST for the eyes !

 

[blithesome71]

As a net lurker, I came across this not commonly seen & available color for garnet. I think it's even rarer than spess 'cos it's my first time to see this one offered

...A welch grape colored Garnet from Tanzania

 

[blithesome71]

shiney:

yeah, makes me want to grab 'em all and eat 'em hehe


....looks like the rare "Siberite" tourmaline has a twin sister

 

[blithesome71]

Accdg. to the seller:

"Purple Garnet Info from 2010 - Grape Juice Colored Garnet - We had seen ONE piece of rough in (2009) that would cut an Amethyst colored Garnet. We were very impressed with the color and saddened that we had not purchased the rough before someone else did. Though our knowledge in the gem trade is extensive, there are others who sometimes find these uncommon pieces before we do. We were fortunate to find a few fine faceted specimens of this unique garnet color and cherry picked among those available to offer the several pieces shown below. This is a color that we have not seen in 30 years in the gemstone trade, so as is our goal, we had to have this rare and unique color in our inventory. Sometimes smaller material is seen, but nothing in such a large, well cut, glowing purple color as this. (We are currently offering this under the price per carat that the cutter mentioned above sold his at - and his finished gemstone was smaller than many of the pieces photographed below.) We also contacted GIA about this material, and our contact there had the following to say - "The purple garnet is particularly interesting" ......"

 

[LD]

I'm confused because this grape colour can be found in many Rhodolites and also in many colour change Garnets?

For example:

http://www.artcutgems.com/item.php?item_id=698&page=3&category_id=46

Now if you want to talk a rare colour in garnet it's BLUE Finding a good, clean blue garnet is very very tough!

 

[JewelFreak]

Monitors can be deceiving, but the grape ones posted by the OP look like a true grape-purple, where on my computer the rhodolite, LD, has more red. I LOVE that purple, wow.

Thanks for yummy photos -- I got my daily shot of Vitamin C just eyeballing those stones.

--- Laurie

 

[Pandora II]

I'm confused because this grape colour can be found in many Rhodolites and also in many colour change Garnets?

For example:

http://www.artcutgems.com/item.php?item_id=698&page=3&category_id=46

Now if you want to talk a rare colour in garnet it's BLUE Finding a good, clean blue garnet is very very tough!

Ditto this - I have a grape rhodolite that is very like the above in some lights and a CC that shows purple/raspberry.

ETA: I've just checked out the site that those came from. I'm suspicious about what they really look like in the hand. The others that are pictured below are the spitting image of Rick's 'Royal Rhodolites'. The background looks a little on the blue side which makes me think that there's a blue cast to the first images.

 

[LD]

Good catch Pandora - This is also noticeable if you look at the background of the stone comparing to the oranges (Blithe posted above) you can see that the background is grey with a hint of orange - always a good indication of some over exhuberant photoshopping!

 

[colormyworld]

I am pretty sure one of the major" gem houses" has had the name "grape garnet" trademarked for quite a few years.

 

[ooo~Shiney!]

I will take the raspberry, please......
Cute thread for a weekend morning !

 

[Barrett]

Great grape garnet, blith..nice find on that one!

 

[yennyfire]

Yummy! I'll take one of each please!

 

[blithesome71]

Hi guys! Thanks for the post. I made this thread because I thought this concord grape garnets are interesting. I haven't tried purchasing anything yet from this seller but I think he's reputable and well, if you'll look on his "grape garnets" inventory, it's visually discernible that these garnets are not just like those more common purplish-red rhodolite variety. These are like Amethysts which I personally think is rare 'cos this is actually the first time I saw this kind of color in garnet.

Here's the link for full details and additional photos of true grape garnets: http://atggems.com/Photos_Garnet.htm

 

[kelpie]

So yummy!

 

[minousbijoux]

Hi all:

You might want to do a search here on that seller, as there have been mixed reviews on him and his stones.

 

[briolette]

I love the way you posted those! They look so yummy.
I've never seen a grape colored garnet before. What a cool color!

 

[Pandora II]

Here's a crappy picture of my colour-change garnet but it shows the daylight colour well (I haven't photoshopped it other than to crop). It's deep raspberry under incandescent light.

ETA: I bought this stone because of the great colour-change not because it was a fabulous stone, the cut is 'interesting' and it has a surface reaching inclusion on the pavillion but since it's not destined for setting I wasn't too bothered!

 

[LD]

Here's one of mine. This is a colour change garnet and this is the colour in incandescent lighting.

 

[Pandora II]

I am pretty sure one of the major" gem houses" has had the name "grape garnet" trademarked for quite a few years.

It was trademarked in the late 90's by Columbia Gem House. The original find was in Orissa, India.

I've heard that they should have an RI of around 1.79 which would lead me to suspect that there is quite a bit of spessartite in with the pyrope & almandine. I'll have a look at the RI's of my CC and my Royal Rhodolites tomorrow evening and see what they are showing up as.

 

[Pandora II]

Here's one of mine. This is a colour change garnet and this is the colour in incandescent lighting.

More hearts, LD???

What's the colour in daylight?

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day btw!

 

[LD]

Here's one of mine. This is a colour change garnet and this is the colour in incandescent lighting.

More hearts, LD???

What's the colour in daylight?

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day btw!

I know For somebody who doesn't like hearts I seem to have quite a few!

The colour in daylight is forest green. So it's very similar to an Alex in colourway.

Happy Mother's Day to you also! I hope you've been treated well?

 

[loriken214]

This is my new most favorite thread!!! I love these photos so much I keep coming back to drool....

Lori

 

[Richard M.]

I am pretty sure one of the major" gem houses" has had the name "grape garnet" trademarked for quite a few years.

It was trademarked in the late 90's by Columbia Gem House. The original find was in Orissa, India.

I've heard that they should have an RI of around 1.79 which would lead me to suspect that there is quite a bit of spessartite in with the pyrope & almandine. I'll have a look at the RI's of my CC and my Royal Rhodolites tomorrow evening and see what they are showing up as.

Just to clarify, the Royal Rhodolites I supply really don't resemble amethyst the way this African example does. Their hue contains more red, giving them a purple-red or purple-violet appearance. There are other stones from the same source that have a bit more almandine in their composition and face true purple, but it's difficult to find rough that isn't too dark in tone. The same general hue range can be found in garnets from Tocantins, Brazil and a couple of sources in Idaho, U.S.A. and maybe elsewhere.

Due to isomorphous replacement, garnets from the same deposit can vary a lot in hue. As for the 1.79 R.I., I think it indicates a fairly high percentage of almandine (1.72-1.82).

Richard M.

 

[loriken214]

Here's one of mine. This is a colour change garnet and this is the colour in incandescent lighting.

LD, thank you for sharing your heart with ME...I seem to be the only heart-lover on here!

Lori

 

[loriken214]

Here's one of mine. This is a colour change garnet and this is the colour in incandescent lighting.

More hearts, LD???

What's the colour in daylight?

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day btw!

I know For somebody who doesn't like hearts I seem to have quite a few!

The colour in daylight is forest green. So it's very similar to an Alex in colourway.

Happy Mother's Day to you also! I hope you've been treated well?

Mother's Day??? In the UK?

Lori

 

[Pandora II]

Here's one of mine. This is a colour change garnet and this is the colour in incandescent lighting.

More hearts, LD???

What's the colour in daylight?

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day btw!

I know For somebody who doesn't like hearts I seem to have quite a few!

The colour in daylight is forest green. So it's very similar to an Alex in colourway.

Happy Mother's Day to you also! I hope you've been treated well?

Someone forgot...

Methinks I might owe myself a pet rock in compensation...

Lori - In the UK, Mother's Day is celebrated on the 4th Sunday in Lent aka Mothering Sunday. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothering_Sunday

We don't have things like Grandparent's Day etc here and Father's Day is a very new institution. Mother's Day was a religious festival that gradually became a secular celebration (or should that be commercial?)

 

[marcy]

Very clever ways to display the vast array of colors of garnets. Thanks for posting these.