There are many families of garnet, but these rarely occurring hybrids are pretty impressive.Ĭolor-changing garnets are still vanishingly rare and expensive, but they don’t quite hit the same prices as sapphire or Alexandrite. Color-changing garnets are a combination of spessartine and pyrope garnets, which creates the changing effect. The actual intergrowth of the crystals is more impressive. It’s just a matter of how our eyes interact with the stone’s absorption and transmission of photons. Once again we’ve got the same mechanism as Alexandrite controlling the stone’s appearance. Color-changing garnets range from green to blue in natural light, and under different lighting conditions, they become red or purple. They’re an incredible family of gemstones, and they never cease to amaze as you dig deeper. Garnets are varied, from the dark green of Tsavorite to the purple-red of Rhodolite garnets, with everything in between and some of the deepest reds found in nature. The vast majority of Alexandrite you encounter will be of this type, natural stones are so rare that costs are prohibitive for all but the wealthiest collectors. The best is synthetically grown Alexandrite, identical in main crystal composition but grown in a laboratory setting. While the natural stone is very expensive, there are some substitutes. The green spectrum isn’t as present in most artificial lighting, making the shift even more dramatic. It was known to change color with candles or lamps, but modern lights magnify the effect.Īlexandrite’s color shift has to do with the way the human eye perceives color. While normal beryl has a higher amount of beryl than aluminum, chrysoberyl has a larger amount of aluminum inside of its molecules.Īlexandrite’s color-changing properties have been known for longer than many gemstones. The most prized stones, from the Ural mountains, change from deep turquoise green to a deep reddish-purple depending on the light.Īlexandrite is a form of chrysoberyl, related to emerald and morganite but not quite the same stuff.
High-quality material can command prices in excess of $15,000 per carat, making it among the most expensive gemstones in the world. Alexandrite is one of the most expensive gemstones in the world.
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