Top 10 Magenta Rocks

Lapidary Materials to Celebrate the Pantone Color of the Year

- By Helen Serras-Herman

Viva magenta is the Pantone Color of the Year and lapidary materials in the violet-to-magenta palette are sure to be popular. Viva magenta is a deeper shade of hot pink, a balance between warm and cool, with saturated reddish and purple undertones. Hues range from violet to mauve, purple, indigo, lilac, plum, lavender, crimson, maroon, burgundy, fuchsia and magenta. The varying amounts of blue and red color pigments based on the mineral's chemical compositions, tip the balance slightly from one color hue to the next.

This enchanting palette includes many favorite lapidary materials. Among them are amethyst, purple chalcedony, charoite, sugilite, lavender jade, tiffany stone, tanzanite, kunzite, purple sapphires, fluorite, rubellite tourmaline, and red garnets, including pyrope, rhodolite, almandine and anthill garnets. Transparent gemstones are commonly faceted, while the opaque materials are more often cut as cabochons, free-forms, carvings, beads, eggs and spheres.

AMETHYST & PURPLE CHALCEDONY

Amethyst is a prominent crystalline quartz variety, with crystals that exhibit well-defined terminations. Amethyst has been a favorite lapidary material since ancient times.