Types Of Opal Rings

This is because black opal amplifies the colors with the contrasting dark background.

Types of opal rings. Boulder opal is opal that has formed along with another rock called ironstone. Solid opal can be a combination of precious opal and common opal. Black opal is the most valuable type of opal and it is predominantly found in lightning ridge. In this video justin will take you through the four main australian opal types as well as a newly discovered one not yet gone mainstream.

The opal is the central kernel and never reaches the outer edge. Thin to thick seams of white or black. Understanding opal starts with understanding the basic types of opal found. Meaning that the surface is often but not always undulating people who are more progressive in their jewellery tastes prefer these stones.

These types of opal can come with interesting hills and valleys on the surface. The material is cut and polished with the opal material still attached to the parent material e g. Walnut sized concretions in a regular layer like a conglomerate. Most white opal have muted pastel colors.

When the parent stone is visible alongside the opal as in the pendant shown here it is called boulder matrix opal. Boulder opal presents beautifully in jewelry of all types including men s jewelry. Most of this type of opal comes from the opal fields in queensland where there is a huge belt that spreads thousands of kilometers where this type of opal is produced. Ironstone on which the opal formed.

Solid opal is also known as type 1 opal. Shells of coarse hardened sandy clay with layers of opal in between. Boulder opal is similar to black opal except that the foreground colour is very thin and sits on a brown ironstone base.