Down under
Aug. 1st, 2006 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigo_rose99I met an interesting man today... And bought earrings from him. Opals are everywhere. Kind of like amber was in Copenhagen. Every tourist trap has some. We've been hitting the tourist traps and the jewelry stores both, for contrast if for nothing else.
It turns out (the gentleman educated me) that opal jewelry comes in three forms:
Boulder -- this is the raw stone. Polished, but just stone. Treat it like you would glass. Don't bake it, drop it, or step on it, but otherwise it is pretty sturdy.
Doubled -- this is the stone, put on a back (usually dark) layer. This is usually done because opal often comes out of the ground in very thin sheets. Sheets too thin to make jewelry out of without some sort of thickening to protect it. These thin layers of opal are glued to a background (often black). The risk in wearing them is that if you wash dishes in them, the soap and water can soak in between the layers, making the opal look cloudy. So, they say be careful in buying doubled rings.
Triples - Similar to doubles, but they wanted an extra layer of protection on top of the stone. Tiny earrings are pretty much always triples, because the opal itself is too small to fit inside the earring setting without something (clear crystal) sitting on top of it. Triples run the same water-damage problems as doubles. They work well as earrings, but don't take too many showers wearing them or they may well cloud up.
Boulder opal beads are rare, and insanely expensive. Today I saw two strands that were over 3K (10 mm in size, but too much smaller and you cannot appreciate the opal coloration), and one strand that was in the 300 range. But the 300 one was not as colorful, and looked quite a bit like a strand of hematite. *sigh* I want a strand of lovely opal beads, but am not willing to pay over a thousand dollars (yes, US) for it. The sellers tell me that any similar strand of opal beads is pretty much impossible to find outside of Australia.
It turns out (the gentleman educated me) that opal jewelry comes in three forms:
Boulder -- this is the raw stone. Polished, but just stone. Treat it like you would glass. Don't bake it, drop it, or step on it, but otherwise it is pretty sturdy.
Doubled -- this is the stone, put on a back (usually dark) layer. This is usually done because opal often comes out of the ground in very thin sheets. Sheets too thin to make jewelry out of without some sort of thickening to protect it. These thin layers of opal are glued to a background (often black). The risk in wearing them is that if you wash dishes in them, the soap and water can soak in between the layers, making the opal look cloudy. So, they say be careful in buying doubled rings.
Triples - Similar to doubles, but they wanted an extra layer of protection on top of the stone. Tiny earrings are pretty much always triples, because the opal itself is too small to fit inside the earring setting without something (clear crystal) sitting on top of it. Triples run the same water-damage problems as doubles. They work well as earrings, but don't take too many showers wearing them or they may well cloud up.
Boulder opal beads are rare, and insanely expensive. Today I saw two strands that were over 3K (10 mm in size, but too much smaller and you cannot appreciate the opal coloration), and one strand that was in the 300 range. But the 300 one was not as colorful, and looked quite a bit like a strand of hematite. *sigh* I want a strand of lovely opal beads, but am not willing to pay over a thousand dollars (yes, US) for it. The sellers tell me that any similar strand of opal beads is pretty much impossible to find outside of Australia.
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Date: 2006-08-23 01:22 am (UTC)