The Types of Garnet Usually Found in Schist

Schist

• The color of mica schist ranges from silver and gray to brown or black, with the grain size ranging from very fine to coarse. Glittering bits of mica are visible with the naked eye. Mica schist with a lot of garnet accessories may be referred to as "garnet-mica-schist."

Where It's Found

• Mica schist is very common in mountain ranges, especially the west and central Alps. It can also be found from New England to Georgia in the United States, the Scottish Highlands, New Zealand and the Abakuma region of Japan. There are also deposits in the upper parts of Lake Como and Val Malenco in Italy.

  Schist is sometimes but rarely used as a roofing material because it too easily splits; indeed, schist is from a Greek word which means "to split." It's more often used as gravel.

Garnet

• Garnet is usually a brilliant red gem. The name might come form the Latin granatum, which means pomegranate. The almandine version of the stone is the exact color of the fruit of the pomegranate, but garnet can also come in shades of yellow, orange and a rare green demantoid form. A blue garnet is exceptionally rare and some experts think they can't exist at all. The almandine garnet, which is also called a carbuncle, is common and made of aluminum and iron. Garnets have been prized as a gem for over 5,000 years.

  Garnet is fairly high on the Mohs scale, which measures the hardness of minerals. Garnet is a 6.5 to 7.5, whereas a diamond, the hardest mineral of all, is a 10.

  Garnet is the birthstone for January, the state mineral of Connecticut and the state gemstone of New York. It makes a good abrasive when ground into garnet sand.

Notable Garnet Jewelry

• Notable examples of jewelry which showcases carbuncles is a brooch and pendant presented by Mrs. H.F. Mossockle to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It's made of gold, enamel, diamonds and sapphire and features a beautiful, polished but unfaceted (cabochon) garnet. Another pendant, now at the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, is a large cabochon garnet surrounded by rose diamonds and eight half pearls set in blue and white enamel.