Opal jewelry is one of the most unique and beautiful gemstones available in the wholesale gemstone jewelry market. The exquisite play of colours on its surface, which occurs when sunlight passes through the gaps in the silica spheres, multi-folds its overall aesthetics and makes it even more alluring and stupendous.
Whether it is to gift your spouse with a glittering opal gemstone ring made out of the most precious, Black opal or to adorn that pair of shining opal earrings to make your face glow like a bright star, opal jewelry never falls short to surge the grace and look of its wearer.
High-quality opals can be even rarer and more expensive than diamonds, (Top-notch quality black opals can cost you above $10,000 per carat).
However, despite being one of the customers’ most loved and preferred gemstones for their jewelry collection, there is still a stint of adequate information about how to make opal jewelry shopping devoid of any confusion, and which factors to keep in mind while going out to get your hands on opal jewelry.
Well, if you too think that purchasing the best quality opal jewelry is not your cup of tea, then check out these pro Tips for Buying Perfect Opal jewelry and making your next opal hunt successful.
Which are the Key Factors to Assess an Opal Quality?
Although different opals differ in their properties, which are as diverse as snowflakes, still some factors remain as homogenous quality factors across all types of opals. They are:
Colour: It includes the main or the dominating body colour (like white opal, black opal, blue opal etc.) and the play-of-colours.
Pattern: It entails the arrangement of the play-of- colours. Assessing includes determining the ratio of the play-of-colour to the primary background colour, overall intensity, which are the dominating hues and the range of colour and pattern.
Clarity or Transparency: Whether the opal is completely transparent, semi-transparent, translucent semi-translucent or completely opaque?
Opal Colours
An opal would always have a primary, dominating colour known as the body colour. This body colour appears as a result of the suspension of tiny impurities within the silica spheres of the opal during its formation.
In addition to this primary colour, all opals display play-of-colours, in which the opal hue can range across the spectrum. This play-of-colour, which makes the opal gemstone jewelry stand out, can be a myriad of two or more colours or can even display all the colours of the rainbow.
Various opals based on the dominating bodycolour available in the market are:
The entire credit for an opal’s overall appearance boils down to how much radiating and attractive play-of-colors it exhibits on its surface.
An opal with a faint play-of-colors would always be seen as a mere stone, only polished and painted with bright colours. Bright and strong play-of-colors is what makes the wearer flaunt his opal jewelry.
And, if somewhere you can cheery-pick an opal in which play-of-color ranges across the entire spectrum (in simple words, it displays multiple color hues on its body), then just ask the cashier to get the bill for that. Such types of opals are extremely rare and valuable.
Opal Patterns
Alike the patterns of clouds and tides, the pattern of the play-of-colors on the opal is also quite heterogeneous. Some common among them are:
- Pinfire or pinpoint pattern
- Peacock pattern
- Flame pattern
- Harlequin or mosaic pattern
As far as the pattern of the play-of-colors is concerned, closely held patches look more beautiful and surreal to the eyes, in contrast, to the tiny and scattered dots, which even raises questions about the authenticity of the opal.
Besides the pattern and arrangement of the play-of-color, the buyers must also consider the occurrence of the extinction or the “dead spots” on the surface of the opal.
A dead spot is simply an area on the opal which is devoid of any background color or any hue across the spectrum. In a nutshell, it’s colorless, just like an area of the ocean without the reflection of the sunset in the evening.
Goes without saying, the brightness of the play-of-colors on the gemstone should be at the top of the checklist when looking at an exquisite opal jewelry collection.
Opal Clarity and Transparency
Transparency and clarity in opal indicate the degree of freedom from inclusions. As already discussed above, level of the clarity in opal gemstone can range from:
- Transparent
- Semi-transparent
- Translucent
- Semi-translucent
- Opaque
Different opals are prized differently in terms of the level of clarity. For instance, crystal opals, a transparent or semi-transparent background, leverage the overall beauty and value of the jewelry.
In contrast, black opals should have an opaque level of clarity as their dark body and luminous display of play-of-colors that displays on their surface, is what makes them stand out.
However, the only red flag to be aware of is that opal gemstones with extremely milky background color and cloudy/blur transparency are either fake ones f low quality. Don’t mistake cloudy opals for opaque opals.
Wrapping Up.
Let’s sum up those 3 key golden tips to buy the best opal jewelry
Get the best quality opals at Rananjay exports, and adorn yourself with beautiful opal jewelry.
Happy Shopping!
