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.