Photo by Orasa Weldon.
Mahenge is a town and mountain range in southern Tanzania. Discovered around 2015, Mahenge garnets are classified as either pyrope-spessartine or pyrope-spessartine-almandine, depending on the stone. They are in limited supply and have bright colors ranging from pink, magenta, purple, and pink-orange.
Pyrope-spessartine garnets were first discovered in Tanzania in the 1960s by miners searching for rhodolite in Tanzania’s Umba River Valley. When the unusual stones were found in parcels of rhodolite, they were initially rejected, so African dealers started treating them as reject garnets and nicknamed them “malaya” (also spelled malaia), which means “outcast” in Swahili.
In the late 1970s, some American and German dealers saw an opportunity to market the stone. Since “Malaya” sounded exotic, they decided to keep the name. The production was small and sporadic. Madagascar has been another source of Malaya garnet. The Winter 2001 issue of Gems & Gemology has an article on Malaya garnets from Bekily, Madagascar.
Color-change garnet is also classified as pyrope-spessartine and has been found in Tanzania, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Russia and the USA.
Mark Gronlund started in the jewelry industry as a self-taught goldsmith in 1988. He began cutting gems in 1995 and was inspired by Homer to experiment with concave faceting.
In 1996 he won three spectrum awards and has continued to win awards for his cutting ever since then. I relied on Gronlund for information and photos of concave cutting when I wrote the first edition of my “Gemstone Buying Guide” (www.reneenewman.com/gemstone.htm) and have used newer examples of his gems in the later editions.
You can see more of his gems on his Instagram page: @geminnovator and website www.g3gems.com.
Guest articles by Renée Newman:
https://gem-spectrum.com/category/renee-newman
About the author:
Renée Newman is a gemologist (GG, GIA), lecturer, writer and author of 15 books on gems and jewelry. Her goal is to provide consumers and jewelry professionals with unbiased, affordable information on how to buy, evaluate and appreciate gems and jewelry. She can be reached through her website:
