This masterfully cut 7.01 ct rainbow garnet crystal from San Pedro Mountain, New Mexico, is a best-in-class specimen exhibiting breathtaking lamellar diffraction and brilliant chromatic complexity. The stone features a freeform checkerboard-style faceting pattern, applied at low angles across each face to preserve the natural geometry of the original crystal while maximizing optical return. This faceting style not only honors the original morphology of the garnet but enhances the movement and interplay of light in a way that reveals the full spectrum of internal diffraction.

As you rotate the stone, its high gem clarity allows for opposing color themes to emerge across a single face—a rare and powerful visual phenomenon. From one direction, it explodes with neon electric blue and violet, while just a slight shift in orientation reveals fiery red, orange, green, and a glowing golden base. This dramatic spectral shift is only possible in the most transparent and lightly colored andradite crystals, which are exceptionally scarce even within this already rare material class.

San Pedro Mountain is globally renowned as one of the very few localities where iridescent andradite garnets are found, but most specimens are partial, included, or muted in color. Fully facetable crystals with high clarity, clean terminations, and this level of optical dynamism are vanishingly rare. This stone exemplifies the highest potential of the locality, cut with both technical precision and artistic vision.

Among the hundreds of stones I’ve personally cut from this locality, this ranks among the top tier for both brightness and complexity. It is a true optical masterpiece—a singular gem that embodies the convergence of natural rarity, crystallographic beauty, and advanced lapidary technique.