Garnet is one of our favorite stones for integration in designs using other gemstones which are highly complimented by its ability to bring a design harmoniously together and add intrigue to stone combinations. Even in designs where garnet is the focal stone, an intensely warm look and feel are created. Garnet is a stone of romantic love and passion. It is used in metaphysics to enhance sensuality, sexuality, and intimacy. It is said to bring positive thoughts and boosts energy, and be excellent for manifestation. It can also assist mystically with success in one's career and building one's self-confidence. It is also a protective energy stone which is especially effective for protection from evil, and is used for gentle spiritual healing. Lore says that garnet can heal the blood, heart and lungs. Garnet is associated primarily with the root chakra, but also with other chakras depending on its color.

Six common varieties of garnet are recognized based on their chemical composition. They are pyrope, almandine, spessartite, grossular (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-grossular-andradite.

Garnet provides versatility in design and is a mineral that has been used since the Bronze Age for gemstones and abrasives.Garnets are found in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink and colorless. The rarest of these is the blue garnet, discovered in the late 1990s in Bekily, Madagascar. It is also found in parts of the United States, Russia and Turkey. 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.

Garnet’s light transmission properties can range from the gemstone-quality transparent specimens to the opaque varieties used for industrial purposes as abrasives. The mineral’s luster is categorized as vitreous (glass-like) or resinous (amber-like).

Gemological Institute of America, GIA Gem Reference Guide

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