Garnet, citrine, labradorite…: Dorothée Sausset’s guide to natural gemstones
Geological origins, cultural history, and characteristics of each stone in our collections
My jewelry incorporates a selection of natural stones carefully chosen for their beauty, character, and history. Here's an overview of each of them: not from the perspective of beliefs, but of geology, geography, and cultural history.
Garnet
Garnet is one of the oldest stones used in jewelry. Its name comes from the Latin "granatum," referring to pomegranate seeds, with which it shares its deep red color. But garnet is not exclusively red: it also comes in orange, green, and even blue (very rare).
Garnets are found on all continents. The most renowned in jewelry are garnets from Mozambique and India, demantoid garnets from Russia (green, with spectacular reflections), and tsavorites from Kenya. In antiquity, Romans and Greeks made extensive use of them in their jewelry: garnets have been found in royal tombs dating back several millennia.
Moonstone
Moonstone belongs to the feldspar family, and more specifically to adularia. Its most remarkable visual characteristic is adularescence: a unique optical phenomenon that produces a bluish or silvery sheen that seems to float within the stone when illuminated.
The main sources of moonstone are Sri Lanka, India, Madagascar, and Myanmar. Indian moonstone, often more orange or peach than Sri Lankan varieties, is particularly prized in jewelry. It enjoyed great success during the Art Nouveau period, where jewelers like René Lalique abundantly used it for its ethereal visual effects.
Citrine
Citrine is a variety of quartz whose color ranges from pale yellow to deep orange-brown. Its hue is due to traces of iron in its chemical composition. It is one of the most abundant stones in the world, and thus one of the most accessible in jewelry.
The main sources of citrine are Brazil, Bolivia, Madagascar, and Zambia. It should be noted that the vast majority of citrines available on the market are actually heated amethysts: amethyst turns yellow when exposed to heat. A natural, untreated citrine is much rarer and generally has a paler, more subtle color.
Pink and Green Tourmaline
Tourmaline is one of the most diverse families of stones, with a color palette covering almost the entire visible spectrum. Pink tourmaline (or rubellite in its most intense versions) gets its color from manganese. Green tourmaline (or verdelite) owes its character to chromium or vanadium.
The main global sources of tourmaline are Brazil (the world's leading producer), Nigeria, Mozambique, and Afghanistan. Some bicolor tourmalines, called "watermelon," exhibit a pink core and a green border in the same stone: a phenomenon due to changes in geological conditions during their formation.
Sapphire
Sapphire is a variety of corundum (aluminum oxide) that is blue in color, the hue coming from traces of titanium and iron. But sapphires also exist in pink, orange, green, purple, and even colorless: these are then called fancy sapphires.
The most renowned sapphires in the world come from Kashmir (for their unparalleled velvety blue, which has become the absolute benchmark), Sri Lanka (lighter blue sapphires, with silky reflections), and Madagascar (remarkable diversity of colors). Thailand is also a major center for sapphire treatment and trade.
Labradorite
Labradorite is a plagioclase feldspar whose visual characteristic is labradorescence: a phenomenon of light diffraction that produces spectacular flashes of color in blue, green, orange, and sometimes purple tones, depending on the observation angle. On the surface, the stone may appear grey and dull, but as soon as it catches the light, it ignites.
It takes its name from Labrador, a Canadian province where it was first described in 1770 by Moravian missionaries. It is also found in Finland (spectacular Finnish labradorite known as "spectrolite"), Madagascar, and Russia.
Quartz
Quartz is one of the most abundant minerals in the Earth's crust. Its absolute purity yields hyaline quartz (transparent), but it exists in dozens of varieties depending on its inclusions and impurities: rose, smoky, rutilated (crossed by gold filaments), aventurine, etc. In jewelry, crystal quartz is often used for its luster and brilliance.
Onyx
Onyx is a variety of chalcedony (itself a variety of quartz) characterized by its parallel bands alternating black and white. The black onyx used in jewelry is generally artificially dyed chalcedony: true natural black onyx is rare. This stone has been used in jewelry since Antiquity, particularly in cameos and intaglios.
Freshwater Pearl
Unlike saltwater pearls (produced mainly by Pinctada oysters in marine pearl farms), freshwater pearls are produced by freshwater mussels, primarily in China. A single mussel can produce several dozen pearls simultaneously, which explains their relative accessibility compared to saltwater pearls.
Freshwater pearls are distinguished by their wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors: round, baroque, white, cream, lavender, or pink. Their nacreous luster is produced by successive layers of nacre (crystallized aragonite) deposited by the mollusk. The thicker the nacre layers, the deeper and more durable the luster.
