Opal Gemstone! The Queen of the Gem Store

Searching for an online gem store will lead you to a world of options and a surprising fact.  Pretty much every online gem store offers opals for sale as a part of their jewelry line or as loose gem stones.  Opals are actually one of  nature’s best splendors, is known as the birthstone for the month of October and is also the gemstone associated with both the fourteenth and eighteenth anniversary.  The hues of an opal can easily change into any color thanks to its natural rainbow effect.  What makes the opal gemstone the queen of gem store is its ability to refract and reflect different wavelengths of light. This has made it one of the most searched gemstones globally. The word opal is derived from several languages: in Sanskrit upala, whose meaning is “precious stone”, the Greek word is opallios while the Latin one, the opalus (both words meaning to see color change).

What is the history behind this queen of gem store?  Well the oldest opal artifacts were discovered from 4000 BC in the African country of Ethiopia. They were later discovered by the world renowned archeologist, Louis Leakey in a cave in Kenya. There are also a number of different opal myths and beliefs, including that they are a cure for diseases affecting the eye, blood disorders, apathy, assistance in reproductive health, and disorders of the brain among others.  Believers in magic also thought opals assisted its wearer in the ability to see possibilities, loosening of inhibitions and promotions of impulsiveness were some of the things related to the opal stones.

This queen of gem store actually comes in many shades of colors. In its basic form, the opal stone is primarily colorless, but this is very rare to come across. The difference in coloration is brought about by the water forming process resulting in tiny spheres which are normally same in size and order diffracting light in the opal stone hence creating various hues of the rainbow. The more same the size of the spheres the more the intensity, brilliance, and definition the color becomes.  If in any case the spheres are randomly shaped and arranged, basic colorless opal is formed.

The hue of the opal stone highly depends only on the uniformity of the small spheres. In tiny spheres, blue and violets spectrum would be revealed. In the case of larger spheres the hues of red and orange will show more on the opal stone. These opal stones are very highly valued for they reveal more color play. You would easily notice them in an Australian opal earring.

The opal stones are actually present in very many types and varieties.  Very fine quality Australian opal is surprisingly rare to come across than even the rare rubies and emeralds.  The Australian Black Opal, for example, is the rarest and most costly of all opals.  They usually come in the form of a bar.  Don’t let their name of Black Opal fool you, though.  These amazing stones complete hues of the rainbow despite the body being dark in color, of gray and blue.

The versatility and natural beauty of opals h=make them a favorite with customers and professionals alike.  Working with opals does take an artists touch as the way they are mined, polished and set all complement and bring out their beauty.   This makes opals a true queen of both the gem store and your own jewelry collection.

Why is it best to choose the Opal Gemstones?

Choosing opal gemstones against the others is not just an automatic thing to do. One needs to get the fact right about this amazing stone. First, the Opal gemstone is just brilliant. That comes with shades that embrace just about every hue of color one can imagine. Each opal stone shows a variety of color scheme making it truly unique and marvelous to have a look at. This one factor that comes along with the beautiful and shimmering hues of color it produces gives it the quality of being  the most collectible and magnificent stones in the globe currently. Due to its unique and entrancing qualities, Australian opal gemstone is highly searched after by collectors and fashion enthusiasts, as well as folks from all walks of life looking for a dazzling and intriguing gemstone.

Secondly this Australian opal has a very long history full of superstitious beliefs and myths. Many global cultures hold a belief that the Australian opal is magical and brings the owner good fortune. An opal stone worn by the historical Romans was a sign of purity and hope and it was believed to provide its wearer with good luck. In the old Greece, opal jewelry was believed to give the wearer ability to give prophecy and predict the future. The Greeks also held a belief that it brought about good luck and fortune to its owner. But, the opal gemstone was not always held as a sign of good luck. In the past century Europe, the opal gemstone was believed to have been the official stone owned by both thieves and robbers and those seen with the stone were held with a lot of suspicion. On top of this, it was also believed that bad omen would definitely go behind the person who had an opal gemstone.

Nowadays, Australian opal jewelry has received a very wide following by folks who have developed an interest in its brilliance and beauty as a jewelry master piece. The fame of opal stone is back on the rise as many have been entranced by the magnificent color shows that it produces. Although the Australian opal gemstone is under classification as a semi-precious stone, some types of the opal stone are very rare and costly. For example, the black opal gemstone can be as costly as a diamond and is the rarest of the bunch. Basically, opals gemstones have a different pricing range and more has to do with the coloration and clarity of the opal gemstone, as well as its integrity. For example, red opals gemstones are commonly costly than the more common blue opals gemstones. Doublet or triplet opal jewelry, which are classified as a piece of opal stones that is sandwiched in between two other materials is usually cheaper than the solid opal stone pieces.

Lastly, whether you make a decision to choose on a rare black opal gemstone jewelry piece or a cheaper type, which is set in gold or silver, or embellished with other opal gemstones, rest assured that all of them are unique and precious treasures displaying multitudes of coloration.

Why is Australian Opal so expensive?

Australian opal has been known for quite sometimes globally to be so expensive. But why are they so? Well the first thing perhaps would be to understand the source and the reason for this. First, Australian boulder opal is mined in the harshest and the most remote location of Australia. The weather condition of this location is just too extreme. Very dry, hence reaching these opals is no walk in the park. Secondly, we need to understand the colors and splendor is found in the opal. The Australian opal jewelry is the most colorful of all gems in the world. All the coloration of the rainbow can be found in this amazing Australian boulder opal. Opal also an intense and mystical fire inside, which has really popularized it and in the process made it more expensive- for this reason, a fine example of an opal may be worth even more than a diamond.

The Australian boulder opal is something of beauty to behold, its array of colors change according to the angle from which it is looked at. These multi-flashes of coloration are known as opalescence. These colorings may be large in one color or small and large in another. The distribution and intensity of these colorful flashes are what gives the determination of its costing.

The opal stone is mainly found in Australia, where the mines supply up to almost all of the global opals gemstones. This is another factor that makes the gemstone more expensive as compared to the others. The demand for Australian boulder opal gemstones has over time been increasing, sometimes the demand beating the supply! Although some other countries produce about 5% of the remaining opal gemstone, they cannot be able to satisfy the market at large. Opal is also mined in Brazil, Mexico, and in a few US states, such as Idaho and Nevada. Recently, there have been finds of opals gemstones in Africa that is in Ethiopia and Mali.

Even though there are other cheaper versions of opal stones, those that do not display an array of coloration are relatively cheaper, but they are not very much in demand as the gemstone opals that display an array of coloration. The first one is commonly available, with the second one being rare and hence costly. The idea of any person purchasing opal gemstones is to have the display of color; hence they go for the expensive ones. The beauty is just too good to replace! Very few people would go for none dazzling cheaper option, for them owning an Australian boulder opal is just more than the name- They also put in consideration the appearance, this has made this precious stone to be more and more expensive.

Another factor that has made the Australian stone costly is the preparation that it takes in cutting it after mining. The process is custom done by hand; this is so to ensure that this delicate and beautiful gemstone is properly fit for the jewelry market. The attention that the opal stone is given is just amazing. It involves a lot of quality work that must be paid for through real pricing.

How can you see the difference between real and fake opal

For most of the opal stones lovers, telling between real and fake opal jewelry is an uphill task. The obvious sign of fake opal jewelry is that it can be easily differentiated with the real opal when closely examined under magnification. The pattern of coloration on natural opal as seen is arranged in a lizard or chicken wire format. The fake opal stone on the other hand does not fluoresce under ultraviolet light; they are basically lower in density and obviously very porous. As well as natural opal, all types can be synthesized for experimental and commercial reasons. This discovery of the ordered sphere structure of the precious opal gemstones led to its synthesis by one Pierre Gilson in the early 70s. Internationally, there are two well known producers of fake opal. Both of them are found in Japan.

It’s vital to note though that most of the so-called fake opal gemstones are more correctly termed copies, they have within them materials not found in natural opal a good example being the plastic stabilizers. Fake ones seen in vintage jewelry are often foiled glass, glass-based Slocum stone- silicate glass showing traces of sodium, magnesium, aluminum and titanium. or later plastic materials.

The so called fake opal gemstones not necessarily fake because some types are chemically same with the forming varieties. Others artificial gemstone opal types have an inclusion of both natural opal and other materials. On the other hand the fake opals are chemically and structurally look like natural opals gemstone, but these are made in the lab, not in the mine ground. These should never be confused with natural opals stones. The main differences between them are their color patterns, which are commonly more regular and exact. Also fake opal appears glassier than natural ones and is still considered to be real opals in some quarters.

Fake opal price is generally very low since they can be produced in large numbers at once while the natural opal is costly due to the fact that they are mined below the ground and take millions of years to form. The fake opals are actually made to resemble the natural opal. They are basically made from such materials as; glass, synthetic opal, or plastic. It’s vital to note that some plastics that have plastic binders are also called a synthetic opal which is very correct.

The fake opal can still make beautiful jewelry. They are not the natural opals, but there is nothing fake about the beauty of a well-made fake opal, and when it comes to jewelry, its beauty is really the whole point. But for those who love the natural beauty of the opal gemstone, then close observation of these stones would reveal to them whether they are natural opal or fake ones. It would be essential for them to have a scrutiny of the opal jewelry if they have any suspicious. Always make sure that you ask the jeweler queries as far as the suspicion opal is concerned. You might find the price to be quite too low than expected. This should make you do more research and clearly look for clues above to give a determination of whether the piece of jewel is natural opal or a fake one.

Opal: One of the Most Beautiful Gem Stones

In the quest to look truly unique and to develop a dazzling personal style, people are straying away from conventional gems like diamonds, rubies and emeralds and are looking to gemstones like Opal. Opal is basically made of silica and each crystal is completely unique and the crystal structure allows Opals to give off a variety of colors. Unlike many other precious gems, colorful opals are much more prized than solid-colored white ones and most of the opal in the world comes from Australia.
They are not only colorful, but they also tend to glow even in very low light making them extremely interesting and attention grabbing. The vivid hues of opals make them perfect show-stopping jewelry pieces. The colors of an opal can range from rose, magenta, green, brown, and blue, to red, orange and even black. Most importantly, a single opal gemstone can have all these colors at once making them truly striking. Imagine a deep blue opal with bright green specs embedded in a pure silver ring! No other gemstone can offer such an effect.

Truly dazzling gems
 The more colorful an opal is and the more the colors dazzle, the more precious it is. Some of the best and most coveted opals in the world display almost all the colors in the visible spectrum. Moreover, as the opals move and change positions relative to the light source, they display different colors and this dynamic effect is truly unique. The opalescence or the play of color observed even in ordinary opals is truly unique and beautiful. A single precious opal gemstone can have iridescent green, blue, red, pink, grey, orange and even purple hues all together. Opaque white and green opals are the most common, whereas red set against black opals are quite rare.
The vivid colors – such as red against black and green against blue – add so much drama that there is no need for other pieces of jewelry. One show-stopping and eye-catching opal jewelry piece is enough to make a simple dress look fit for a grand event. Triple opals are opal gemstones with a clear layer of quartz on the top that is polished to a high shine. This makes the colors of the opal beneath to pop and the makes the whole gemstone dazzle. Such triple opals in large sizes are truly spectacular and make for excellent statement pieces of jewelry

Opals Gemstones – Finest Export from Australia

The beautiful colors of nature are all present in the Opal. It’s the most colorful of all the gems. The mystical fire within, combined with the most beautiful colors of the rainbow are beyond words. This array of colors cannot be in any way compared to any of the gems. A nice Opal may even surpass the diamond. An Opal is something that makes one feels proud to own, the colors that keep changing when viewed from different angles are just the bomb. They keep changing from large to small from one color to the other. Actually, these colorful flashes and blinks are the ones that give a determination as far as the value of the Opal is concerned. The flashier the color is, then the higher the pricing.

The Opal Gemstone home is basically Australia where her mines supply close to all the Opals found globally. Although there are other producers like Mexico, Brazil and the USA, they stand more below than the main supplier of Opal Gemstones-Australia. In recent times, some discoveries have been made in the African continent, but it’s yet to be seen how big the production will be. For now Australia still remains the main exporter of these much adored Gemstone Opals. Its beauty and fineness has actually given the country a name in the Gemstone Opal markets. Not to forget that the country has also paid homage to many treasure hunters who gather in its old mines to try their luck and if they could strike it.

Opals Gemstones are actually classified into two. On the first class we have the precious Opals and secondly there are the common Opals. Both of them are used for jewelry but none is searched for more than black opal, this Opal is known for its multi color flashes and a black background. Another Opal Gemstone that is also on the list of the most sought after is the Mexican fire opal this is an almost transparent, orange red form of the common opal. If the Mexican fire opal reveals an array of color, it is then known as the Precious Fire Opal its value goes higher.

In jewelry, the doublets are just but thin pieces or slices of treasured Gemstone Opals that are stuck together on a matrix material. They are given a cheaper as far as the pricing is concerned. Although they still give the same show of color flashes and intensity, it’s relatively viewed as a soft Opal hence a layer of clear quartz is in some occasion added to give it more resistant. This type of Gemstone Opal needs a lot of care and it’s advisable to avoid soaking it in water to prevent the glue wearing out and perhaps separating the enjoined parts. Although it is deemed to be cheaper, well taken care of the beauty within is very worthy and indeed stunning. It might also be fair to say that not everybody can afford the expensive or highly valued Opal Gemstone. Then this would be handy for those who don’t have much to spend but still have a sense of beauty in them.

The Opal gemstones- Amazing properties

With the beauty that it holds, the Opal gemstone loved by so many people winning praise from this and its spiritual powers to some. This glamorous stone has a history dating milliards of years not to forget mentioning that it’s an amorphous form of silicon. The Opal gemstone Globally renowned in development of love- as far as meditation and spiritual properties is concerned and a conviction among the majority about the presence of immense energy within it.

Its physical properties includes; holding an original crystalline structure. The presence of water in it is what makes the Opal gemstone maintain its beauty incase its lost, this amazing stone may in some circumstances go cloudy or in the worst cases, even crack. Its various varieties have different degree of hardness but goes around 7 on the Mohs scale which makes the Opal gemstone very delicate compared to Diamond. This property gives it sensitivity to temperature and moist conditions.

Another outstanding property of the Opal gemstone is the metaphysical qualities with its array of colors having different gains spiritually. The water it contains collates with once emotions amplifies your feelings and helps in clearance of imaginations. The Opal gemstone can give you a realization of the inner fires and give a motivation to the development and improvement of spiritual and mystical pursuits. This complements a deep thinker quite well-Feeling the soul with great joy and encouraging the easy flow of emotions.

Wearing of fire Opal ornaments, assists one to move forward and forget the ugly past, especially for those who have passed through an abusive relationship or unbearable pain of any nature. It makes one to let go and look forward to the future. This might be bad acts done to one in the past like, rape, incest, abusive relationship just to give but a few examples. It actually frees one subconscious mind from the hold of negativism emotions.

This Opal gemstone has a sexual property known to some people. It improves sexual drive and increases the sexual attractiveness. It also drives away any fears and changes them into optimism.

It’s also worthy to mention that the Opal gemstone, has healing properties which have the ability that can restore a broken heart and harmonization of the whole body system. It’s said that some of this healing properties of the Opal gemstone include the ability to heal chronic fatigue syndrome which affects a considerable part of the population. This includes correction of the body metabolic issues as far as dizziness and brain disorders are concerned. The body feels young again and actually there is re-orientation of the mind. This, plus the fact that the Opal gemstone gives one a renewed and reformed look at life each and every day openly tells one that this stone has amazing properties that would not be looked against at any given moment. It’s up to an individual to make the right choices as far as what their need is. From spiritual, to physical and general well being, the Opal gemstone has it all!