Garnet is well known as January’s birthstone because, unlike many other stones, it is the birthstone for both traditional and modern lists as well as for the lessor known Ayervedic list. But it is not the only stone associated with the month. Bernadine’s entry for January lists 12 birthstones!

Even as garnet itself comes in many colors, these 11 other stones are not confined to simple red either. Besides garnet these are emerald, ruby, turquoise, agate, onyx, lapis, amethyst, opal, and jasper (which is really another form of agate and both are quartzes!).

I say it’s nice to be able to choose alternates and agates and jaspers are so plentiful and colorful and a lot of fun. Among my favorite agates are Botswana agates for their rich, carnelian and sunny colors. Some time ago I was asked to create a necklace for a wedding gift and I found a most remarkable teardrop shaped cabochon of this type of stone. The name of the piece is “Barnaget Sunrise” for the couple hail from that exotic island and the necklace depicts that time of day.

Barnegat Sunrise

This necklace also includes two faceted carnelian beads and four honey amber chips. These play the role of early morning sundogs, an astronomical phenomena of great beauty.

If you’re a January baby you have choices! What stone would you pick for your birthstone?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 6:19 PM and is filed under Contemplation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.