gordon's jewelers heart-shaped lab-created sapphire and diamond earrings in sterling silver sapphire |
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Great seeing opal is hard to find and expensive. Even the tiniest pieces can be made into something saleable. There are basically three type of opal pieces sold: Solids, which are one piece of natural opal stone, Doublets, which are two pieces and Triplets which are three pieces.
Lab Created Diamonds
Doublets are regularly one piece of real opal with a piece of black opal or some other stone glued to the back of it. So a doublet may no longer be 100% real natural opal. A triplet will be a doublet with a dome of clear substance on the top of it. This is often glass, quartz or something else. Triplets then, most likely only have one of their three parts as real opal.
Are doublets and triplets bad? Heavens no! They suit the lower budgets and that's a good thing. Solids are the real thing and are the best. Doublets are a thin layer of real opal and are not as essential and triplets are less essential again.
Now we have totally man made or synthetic opals. These are positively opals but the normal process of nature has been sped up so what occurs over millions of years now occurs in a laboratory in months or years. The corollary is stunning!
How can I tell if it is synthetic?
It is not easy but let me say that most retailers will wittingly not try to pass off synthetic opal as real. I have gone into shops in separate parts of the world and told the owners that what they are calling opal is not real but synthetic opal. In all cases they were selling a lovely piece of jewellery with a small piece of synthetic stone and they were interested to learn, particularly when I showed them some real opal.
If you look at synthetic opal from the side it mostly has vertical striations which are quite uniform whereas natural opal is generally wobbly and layers go all over the place. These striations are too uniform and is a good sign that you are seeing at synthetic, but I have seen and mined real opal that looks like this too.
Synthetic opal will be excellent in most cases whereas natural opal is flawed. If it looks too good then it probably isn't a natural stone.
But should you buy a synthetic opal? Why not! They look stunningly beautiful. I buy them and I cut them and make them into spectacular, pieces of jewellery that my customers and my house are happy to wear. You just have to appreciate that they are synthetic.
synthetic Opals, Should I Buy Them? No URLTags : We have selected quality products for you here Steve Madden Faame Stuart Weitzman Platswoon Pumps 14k Cubic Zirconia Engagement Ring
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