Today, opals make up some of the most unique and beautiful gemstones for jewellery. They are available in different colours, including milky white, deep blue-green, and fiery red. One interesting thing about opals is that they each have distinctive and personal qualities – this is never the case for other gemstones, such as diamonds and sapphires. The uniqueness is simply because of the different colours and patterns of opals.
Before going ahead to shop for the right opal gemstone jewellery, you need to first understand what to expect. This move is important to avoid buying fake products offline or online. In the rest of this guide, you’ll discover everything you should know about opal jewellery and how to select the best products on Masterpiece Jewellery Australia.
Table of Contents
What should you know about opal jewellery?
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Types
Opals are some of the most beautiful and unique gemstones you’ll find out there today. They are available in different types and for you to pick your preferred products, you need to get familiar with each of them.
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Black Opals
Black opal is one of the most common types of opal gemstone jewellery out there. To shop right, you need to understand that this product contains dark background colour.
Black opals are unique because of the presence of carbon and iron oxide trace elements. These elements aren’t available in ordinary opals. The dark body colour makes it possible for flashes of colours to be maximized in black opal.
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White/milky opals
White/milky opals are known for their opaque milky appearance. Unlike black opals, these gemstones don’t have flashes of colour. Also, their background colour can be available in different colours, such as white, grey/brown plus yellow, red, blue, and green pinfire. Many people go for white/milky gemstone jewellery because they’re highly affordable.
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Crystal opals
Unlike white opals, crystal products are available in a range of flashing colours. They are very transparent and often come with a dark backing, which makes it possible to see subtle colours.
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Boulder Opal
You might mistake boulder opals for black opals if care is not taken. Boulder opals are a very unique type of gemstone jewellery. That’s so because they feature a piece of the host rock, which is often attached as a backing. However, they are less valuable when compared to black opals.
2. Tone & body colours
Apart from opal types, two other things you need to get familiar with are the body colours and tone of these pieces of gemstone jewellery. These two factors influence the value and beauty of opals.
Black opals are known to be very valuable because of their dark tone. Here’s the thing; the darker the tone of the opal rings or opal gemstone earrings that you choose, the more valuable they are. How valuable opals are has a lot to do with the flashes of colour available. Interestingly, these flashes of colour are more pronounced in darker opals than in other types.
3. Brightness
As with other pieces of gemstone jewellery available out there, opals also have their brightness grading scale. These grades will help you to better understand the intensity of the reflection of colour in the presence of light.
Generally, the opal brightness grading scale is divided into three categories:
- Dull or subdued
- Bright
- Brilliant
A product is said to be dull or subdued if they don’t have the best value. A good example is white/milky opal jewellery. In terms of brightness, bright opals sit in-between dull/subdued and brilliant opals. As for brilliant opals; they have the brightest colours with attractive flashes of colour. This makes them very expensive in the market today.
Things to look for when buying opal jewellery
Now that you know a lot about opal jewellery, it’s time to start shopping at Masterpiece Jewellery. When shopping, keep the following factors in mind:
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Play-of-colour
As mentioned so far, the “play of colour” is very important when shopping for the best opal jewellery. The most valuable product is opal jewellery with the most attractive flashes of colour. You’ll find these when you opt for opals with dark tones.
2. Doublet or triplet
There’s no denying that black opals are the most valuable opal jewellery available out there. The boulder opals also come close to the black gemstone jewellery. These products are generally very expensive. If you don’t have enough budget to cover their costs, another thing you can do is to go for an opal doublet or triplet.
3. How to find the right seller
The right seller should have different types of opal jewellery in the store. Masterpiece Jewellery Australia is one of the most reliable sellers in the country. In this store, you’ll find highly affordable white/milky opal earnings studs, boulder opal gemstones, valuable black opal rings, crystal opal jewellery, and many more. You can learn more about the prices of these products and how to buy them on Masterpiece Jewellery Australia.
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