The garnet belongs to a group of silicate minerals used since the Bronze Age as talismans, gemstones, and abrasives. The stone earned its name from the Latin granatus, which means “seed-like,” because garnet crystals found in the rock were similar in shape and color to that of pomegranate seeds. The garnet is found exhibiting a variety of colors, one of the most common being the deep red or amber color. A colorless variety can be found, and other colors include orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black and pink. Blue garnet is the rarest, discovered as recently as the late 1990’s in Bekily, Madagascar. It is also found in certain areas of the continental U.S., Russia, Kenya and Turkey. Species of color-changing garnets exist due to the presence of a relatively high amount of vanadium, which results in a different appearance in sunlight as opposed to incandescent light.
