Buying opals: Seven mistakes people make
Buying opals: Seven mistakes people make
Buying opals: sept erreurs les gens font est un sujet très nécessaire, pour les bijoux est une grande décision en raison de la singularité et la beauté de la pierre qui change de couleur lorsqu'il est. But this practice is fraught with danger.
Autrefois 30 ans ou plus, clever marketers have found ways of producing gemstones such as rubies, saphirs, emeralds and more recently, opals that look not just like the real thing but are actually produced in a laboratory.
It’s fine to own costume jewelry if that’s what you want but if you want the real thing, be careful of this practice. Malheureusement, car opale est une pierre précieuse spécialisée, de nombreux bijoutiers eux-mêmes ne savent pas grand-chose à ce sujet et sont confus au sujet de son origine.
Buying opals that will crack or craze in a relatively short time
Opals and other gemstones such as emeralds have a tendency to crack if they are not from reliable sources. Emeralds are often treated with oil that can hide the cracks. Opal cracks are more difficult to hide but because opal is hydrated silica (meaning it has a percentage of water content.) Ceci est bien si l'opale provient des déserts outback australien où la pierre a été séché au cours probablement des milliers d'années.
De nombreux opales commercialisés à un prix avantageux sont des zones humides ou montagneuses côtières où la teneur en eau est trop élevée. These stones will almost certainly crack in time. You will need to make sure, even if your stone IS from Australia, that you have an international perpetual guarantee from a reliable supplier with a good reputation.
Buying opals that will lose their color almost immediately if you soak them in water
For a similar reason as the comments made above, opals from wet areas are also very porous which means that the surface of the stone can be like blotting paper. If you happen to wear your opal ring in the wash-up or the shower, it will almost certainly suck in the moisture and turn beautiful color into an ugly brown.
A good indication of this type of porous opal is that they are often faceted like diamonds and sapphires, rather than cut with a dome. This is not always the case but because they are often more translucent than opaque the stone presents better with facets.
This is an immediate indication that it could well be a stone that will probably change color. It is said that if you put these stones in the sun for a while, the color will return but since they are often prone to cracking as well, this can be a risky procedure.
Buying opals without a high dome that are claw set
Pour les griffes à fermer sur une pierre avec succès, il est presque impératif que la pierre est bombée ou il y aura une tendance à la dureté des griffes d'or ou d'argent à puce bord de l'opale. We are not saying that you should not buy stones like this because if they have been successfully closed without chipping the stone, C'est très bien. just look very closely and ask the supplier if the setting is perfect.
Acheter des opales sans lire les petits caractères pour vous assurer qu'il est pas opale « de laboratoire » ou l'homme fait
Even in some well respected online shopping sites, because the promoters are not opal experts, they don’t know anything about the differences between natural and synthetic opal. Often the individual promoters on these sites will hide the real identification of the opal within the body of extensive explanations and it’s so easy to read a paragraph and not even notice the ‘lab opal’ or ‘laboratory opal’ or ‘created opal’ identification.
Bien sûr,, in MOST cases reputable sites will mention this but if you are not looking for it, it can easily be missed, resulting in you paying for something that looks OK but is not real.
Buying opals that have the same color on the front as the back of the stone
Ceci est un excellent moyen d'identifier un révélateur opale synthétique à un coup d'oeil, même si vous ne savez pas beaucoup sur la pierre. Il n'a pas toujours appliquer parce que les occasions pierres naturelles sont de la même couleur à travers la pierre, mais en général, le dos de la pierre aura des imperfections ou du moins aura différents modèles en haut de la pierre.
So if you are buying an opal unless it’s from a reputable opal dealer, always ask to see the back of the stone as well as the front. If the back of the jewelry item is covered by gold and silver, it’s impossible to check, alors ne l'achetez pas, sauf si vous avez un absolu perpetual guarantee that it is natural. We say ‘perpetual’ because if the item is only guaranteed for a year, often the cracks or change of color will occur a couple of years down the track.
Buying opals that have a pattern that does not look natural
Lorsque tissus synthétiques ont d'abord été inventé, ils avaient un motif qui était évidemment contre nature parce que le modèle « avait l'air » l'homme fait trop symétrique. Cependant, ce n'est pas un bon guide aujourd'hui parce qu'ils ont réussi à surmonter ce problème en laboratoire et à moins que vous êtes un expert, il peut être très difficile de l'avant-plan de la pierre pour faire la différence.
This just emphasizes again that unless you are dealing with a trained opal processor who gives an international perpetual guarantee, you really don’t know what you are buying and this piece of advice does not apply just to opal because jewellers shops nowadays are full of beautiful ‘rubies’ ‘sapphires’ and ‘diamonds’ which are man-made. As mentioned earlier, not that this is wrong. There is a market for them, as long as you know what you are buying and you are paying the right price for what is actually costume jewelry.
Catherine March 30th, 2013 one of thousands reported ici
Je voulais juste dire un grand merci à Pierre pour ses conseils. Je considérais acheter une bague opale 1920 aux enchères et demandé à Peter comment un gros problème le faïençage était, et grâce à lui, j'ai été sauvé de l'achat d'une pierre sans valeur! Très apprécié. – Catherine, USA
Buying opals: Seven mistakes people make
