4.62" Spessartine Garnets & Smoky Quartz, China

Garnets are nesosilicates with the general formula X3Y2(SiO4)3. Garnets come in many species, including pyrope, almandine (the most common species), spessartine, uvarovite, andradite and grossular, varieties of which are hessonite, cinnamon-stone, and tsavorite. Garnets are found in a wide variety of colors including red, orange, yellow, green, purple, brown, blue, black, pink, and colorless, though reddish shades are the most common.

Smoky quartz is a grey-brown to black variety of quartz. This common name is derived from the appearance of smoke within the quartz crystal. Depending on the location and the chemicals present during formation, smoky quartz can appear opaque black, but it is typically translucent to some extent. It is believed that the quartz gains this color from a combination of natural irradiation and aluminum impurities.