Complex tsavorite garnet

Large complex tsavorite garnet model based on a specimen from Merelani Hills, Tanzania

I bought the crystal fragment this model is based on at the Tucson show in 2022. It’s about the size of my thumbnail, and around half complete. While it’s a pretty shade of green, it’s not gemmy, and certainly not undamaged. According to objective standards, it’s not a great specimen, and not the type of crystal most collectors are looking for, but I dug through about 6 flats of “better” specimens to find it. What attracted me to this specimen was its complex and interesting crystal habit. But, as you can see in the photo, it’s difficult to see all the faces clearly and tell how they are arranged, so I made an idealized CAD model to better represent what the crystal would have looked like if it had developed symmetrically.

I based my wood model on this CAD representation, which is a classic habit of garnet often depicted in mineralogy and crystallography texts.
An example is shown below next to an image of the completed model.

Assembling this model was tricky because of the large number of faces - 108! At the time I made it, it had the highest face count of any model I had attempted. I have since exceded that number, but only a few times!

Coincidentally, my most complicated model with the largest number of faces is also a garnet. You can see it here.

Model details: 10" across dodecahedron faces. Trapezohedron faces are yellowheart, tetrahexahedron faces are padauk, dodecahedron faces are spalted maple, and hexoctahedron faces are black walnut.

Specimen details: Tsavorite garnet, complex crystal. Merelani Hills, Arusha, Tanzania. 1 cm.

• Garnet
• Complex
• Isometric - Hexoctahedral