Gems

A little information about the gemstones featured in our current Rio and Vienna collections...

Garnets

There are various species of garnets that make up the garnet group and they can come a large range of colors bar blue. Garnets are quite sturdy and resistant to everyday wear and tear and therefore often used in jewellery.

Garnets, the birthstone for the month of January, are said to cure melancholy and warm the heart.

This season we have used Almandine and Hessonite Garnets in our collection.

Hessonite Garnet

Sometimes called ‘Cinnamon Stone’, these garnets are usually brownish yellow to brownish red in color. They tend to have a treacly interior with a swirly internal effect that looks like honey. This is due to the large number of apatite, calcite or zircon crystal inclusions.

Almandine Garnet

Common in India and Sri Lanka, Almandine garnets come in shades of brownish red to deep mauves. They tend to have inclusions of needle like rutile crystals or rounded zircon crystal inclusions with associated stress cracks called zircon haloes.

Citrine

Part of the quartz family, Citrine comes in various shades of yellow. Amethysts are often ‘heat treated’ into Citrine. They tend to have zoning as straight stripes of color, or tiger stripes, which are healed fractures that look like a thumbprint.

Citrine is the birthstone for the month of November.

Apatite

Apatite comes in quite vibrant colors of yellow green to bright blue, and often tends to have iridescent fractures that run down the crystal. As it is not the hardest of stones, it may need to be treated with care.

Labradorite

Found in Canada, Finland and Norway, Labradorite tends to range in color from dark blue to opaque grey. Made up of many fine layers, Labradorite often display an iridescent play of color due to the scattering and interference of light. Little black inclusions are also characteristic of Labradorite.