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Birthstone for January -- Garnet

Garnet gemstone for making jewelryThe modern birthstone for January is the Garnet.  The term garnet applies to many different chemical compounds generically called neosilicates.  While garnets normally come in the red color shown here, garnets can come in the greatest variety of colors of any gemstone.  The use of garnets as a gem can be traced to pre-historic, Bronze age times.  Beginning in the late 19th century garnets were also used as an industrial abrasive in addition to use as a gemstone.  The varieties of garnet have hardness's between 6.5 and 7.5 on the Mohs hardness scale (quartz has a hardness of 7).  Because they are formed deep within the earth under high heat and pressure, some varieties of garnet are an indicator of the presence of kimberlite in diamond prospecting.  Garnet is the state mineral of Connecticut. 

Beacause they are relatively soft, garnets are probably not a good choice for everyday wear in rings and bracelets. 

For more information on Garnets, visit wikipedia here.

Please select the picture, above-right or select here to view our selection of natural, man-made garnet and garnet CZs in our Internet store.

  Birthstones                    View our Garnet Jewelry Making Kits

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Garnet"
Last updated 3/28/2007

This WigJig web page is provided as part of WigJig University - College of Jewelry Making Techniques.  We try to provide interesting jewelry making techniques using beads, jewelry wire and other jewelry supplies.  We hope that the jewelry making skills taught on these web pages will provide you enough information for you to incorporate these techniques in your own jewelry making projects.  For beginners, we suggest that you start with a visit to our Beginners Jewelry Making pages. These pages discuss the skills necessary for making jewelry in the detail that beginners need. We also suggest that beginners to jewelry making might need to visit the WigJig University College of Jewelry Making Designs for jewelry making projects using the skills and techniques shown here. 

 Most, but not all of the jewelry supplies shown here can be purchased in our WigJig store.  We try to have a complete selection of jewelry supplies in our store including chain, wire, glass beads, findings, watches, tools, etc. 

The jewelry making projects shown here do not use Sterling Silver.  The reason for this is simple, it is harder to get good pictures of Sterling Silver wire components than with colored wire including gold-filled, copper, or brass wire.  Any project shown in colored wire can be made in Sterling Silver wire.