About Opals
It
gives us great pleasure to work with our Australian opal-
as well as being beautiful and unique, we
love the thought that the colours which excite us all, are
drops of ancient water, captured and preserved
an individual remnant of our ancient land.
Nature has captured all the colours of the spectrum displaying
them in infinite variety in this rare
Gemstone -opal. A large portion of Australia's inland was
once covered by sea, leaving deposits
and creating an environment suitable for the formation of
opal. Opal lies dormant in the earth in
remote parts of Australia, until a miner seeks to expose the
gem with the most beautiful dancing
display of colour.
Natural Opal is divided into the categories of black, dark,
light, boulder and matrix opal. Western
Queensland is renowned for boulder opal and boulder matrix
opal of extraordinary quality. This
beautiful variety of opal is a formation of silica that has
filled the cracks and crevices of sandstone
and ironstone boulders. It is distinguished by its large variety
and brilliance of colour, and also known
for its freeform shapes. Boulder opal comes in many varieties
from black to crystal.
The value of opal is based on many criteria. Included are
the brilliance and amount of colours, the type
and desirability of the pattern, as well as the aesthetics
of the shape. Among professional gemologists
the word is that opals are considered among the hardest to
value, with many years of experience required,
and diamonds the easiest.
DID YOU KNOW? Australia produces diamonds (white and coloured,
including the fabulous pink),
sapphires in many hues, rubies and many other gems, but we
have only one national gemstone…….
and it is……………yes…….. you
guessed it………..OPAL.
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