{"id":31339,"date":"2016-01-06T23:45:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T04:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=31339"},"modified":"2016-01-06T23:45:57","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T04:45:57","slug":"januarys-birthstone-garnet-more-colorful-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/januarys-birthstone-garnet-more-colorful-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"January’s Birthstone, Garnet: More Colorful Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

January’s birthstone is garnet, which most people think of as a deep red gem.<\/p>\n

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Click to order custom rhodolite garnet earrings set in 18K gold.<\/p><\/div>\n

But, as I pointed out in this post from last year’s Tucson gem show<\/a>, garnet comes in a range of colors, with different names for different varieties. The garnets I used in the studs pictured above are rhodolite. In Tucson, I got samples of yellowish grossular, green tsavorite, orange spessartite garnet, as well as rhodolite.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
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Left to right: grossular, tsavorite, spessartite and rhodolite garnet.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/center>Tsavorite is one of my favorite gems. The green is so vibrant! I’ve used it so many designs that I consider it to be one of my signature accent gems. I used two carats of tsavorite in my one-of-a-kind onyx skull ring.<\/p>\n

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My onyx skull ring with tsavorite and hidden diamonds.<\/p><\/div>\n

My amethyst Marie Antoinette ring with tsavorites has the same setting as the onyx skull, just flipped upside down.<\/p>\n

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Purple and green were the royal colors.<\/p><\/div>\n

My Marie Antoinette earrings have 202 tsavorites per earring<\/em>. I had to have them custom cut to the right size. I also had the amethyst custom cut.<\/p>\n

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The gem setter took a long time to finish these. It was an exhausting job!<\/p><\/div>\n

When I redesigned my own pearl pendant, I used tsavorite in the setting.<\/p>\n

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I do redesigns for customers too!<\/p><\/div>\n

Later, I made a matching pair of pearl and tsavorite cufflinks as a birthday gift for MrB.<\/p>\n

\"PaulsPearlCufflinks_Zoom__19945_std\"<\/a>

You can order these with different color pearls and different accent gems. How about black pearls with rubies?<\/p><\/div>\n

Even when I’m not doing a design that’s heavy on tsavorite, I like to get a few in. The Empress Wu dragon earrings have tsavorite eyes. Being a green-eyed monster<\/a> isn’t always a bad thing!<\/p>\n

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A close-up of one Empress Wu earring.<\/p><\/div>\n

This custom-made tiger ring has tsavorite eyes too.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This was a fun job to do.<\/p><\/div>\n

This year, I’d love to do a design with orange spessartite, which is also called mandarin garnet. I don’t have anything in mind at the moment, but every time I see this stone, I practically drool. If I go to the Tucson gem show next month, I’m sure I’ll find an inspiring spessartite.<\/p>\n

If you want your own special garnet design, holla at me at info at wendybrandes dot com! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January’s birthstone is garnet, which most people think of as a deep red gem. But, as I pointed out in this post from last year’s Tucson gem show, garnet comes in a range of colors, with different names for different varieties. The garnets I used in the studs pictured above are rhodolite. In Tucson, I…<\/p>\n

Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[592,60,43,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birthstone","8":"category-earrings","9":"category-my-designs","10":"category-rings","11":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31350,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31339\/revisions\/31350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}