Australian Opal Jewelry

Australian Opal Jewelry details: In the past decade or so, the Australian government has seen fit to create a national gemstone and even though many other gemstones are found in this large continent, most of them are also found extensively in other countries. Not so with opal.

Even though of course there are opals in a number of other countries, over 90% of the worlds opals come from Australia and Australian Opal Jewelry has been a by-product of this industry

Well, I guess, this statement coming from an Australian could be perceived as being a bit prejudiced, but having said that, opal cutters like myself have certainly experimented with opals from other countries and the results have been extremely disappointing.

You see, opal, being a hydrated silica, has a certain percentage of water in it and this has the effect of making some opals insecure. You can successfully cut opals from countries which have a high water content in the opal, if you do the cutting process under water and keep the opal as cool as possible.

However, when the stone comes into everyday use, even experiencing hotter or drier climates, they easily shatter, and this can be a disastrous experience if you have paid a lot of money for the opal.

Because Australia is such an old dry continent, the opal that is found in the Australian deserts has had many thousands of years to dry out gradually and become very secure. Because of this, the Australian opal cutting process does not have to be so carefully kept under water.

The opal cutter can more easily define scratches and imperfections when combining water with the dry sanding process. The resultant Australian opal jewelry is far more secure and holds very little risk of crazing or cracking.

Not to say that there are not some opal fields in Australia that produce insecure opal, but these are well known to experienced cutters who avoid them.

Try to buy from experienced opal dealers who have been doing it for a very long time. These cutters such as the resident cutter, Peter Brusaschi at opalmine.com have been processing opal for nearly 40 years and have large stocks of beautiful opals that have been out of the ground for a long time and have proved to be very secure.

Australian Opal Jewelry itself

Opal Jewelry, of course, is set in a variety of different metals. For the fashion industry, it can be presented in base metal, gold, silver, and rhodium or silver plated.

With the crazy price of gold in 2010, the metal is pricing itself out of the average person’s pocket so much attention in recent years has been given to its less expensive sister, silver.

Actually, the pendants will tell you that the price of silver has a greater percentage potential to increase in value than gold in time and opal jewelers know that the white colored metal really makes opal stand out, even more so than gold. So with good reason. opalmine.com designers and opal jewelers have been emphasizing the less expensive precious metal.

Australian opal jewelry set in silver

Another appealing part about using silver as the design medium in Australian opal jewelry is the fact that, because it is not so expensive, the jeweler does not have to be as careful of the weight factor. Because of the price of gold, the jeweler is constantly trying to cut down on the amount of metal to keep the price down. Unfortunately, this sometimes makes for a less solid and secure setting, particularly when it comes to opal rings.

The weight of metal in Australian Opal Jewelry

The dollar value is not the only thing to keep in mind in regard to Australian opal jewelry design. The weight of the metal has a large bearing on the design potential. Much of the design at least at this point in history encourages rather large jewelry.

Pendants and even rings are becoming huge in the fashion houses of the USA and Europe and a similar thing is happening with Australian opal jewelry. So with silver, the opal jewelry designer and the opal manufacturer can do “crazy” as it were, with imaginative creations that use lots of silver metal.

Australian Opal jewelry at opalmine.com

Take a look at the jewelry shop here https://opalmine.com/shop/ and get an idea of what is being done with Australian Opal Jewelry. And for all you folks in England, we apologize for the USA spelling of the term Australian opal jewelry which as you all know is spelled jewellery in the United Kingdom (And Australia ironically). something interesting to look at . Rings that are not earthly.