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Tsavorite garnet

Hi everyone!  I've been spending time organizing all my accumulated findings and beads.  It's very enlightening, to me at least.  I'd like to go back to a passion of mine which is gem stones--garnet to be exact.  Normally you will find Mozambique red garnet which is a gorgeous luminous red.  However, it  is found in many colors like other natural gems.  

I have recently discovered yellow garnet, known as spessartite.  It comes from Bavaria, which is where I was born.  It is so luminescent the lore is it was used for light in early times.  There was enough light from yellow to read by in the dark, so goes the tale.  I looked up spessartite, and found a beautiful ring from a new line on Jewelry TV known as Stratify.  Luckily an anniversary was coming up and Gregg bought me a beautiful ring. I will wear it to class one day.  It is truly gorgeous.  Gregg and I both love rocks, and at one time Marty, our son had a rock collection from all over the world from his grandmother who traveled everywhere, and brought Marty Rocks from special places.  Echoes of the long..long...trailer? When we moved he gifted the whole collection and explanations to a small religious school.  It was loved by all.

Garnet

Rocks do become the ultimate inspiration for jewelry, since noble metals are used to encase the best stone to show off the light, and enjoy the color.

Beside spessartite garnet, is tsavorite garnet.  It is more rare than emerald, and was included in the Royal crown of England, now in the news because of Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee.  There is also one in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian rock collection.  It is a museum quite worth seeing, since it houses the blue Hope diamond as well.  Just in case many on you thought rocks were just ordinary.  Hardly!

See you soon.  Chris