Opal Gemstone Jewelry

Opal Gemstone Jewelry

The Opal word comes from the Latin opalus, by Greek opallios, and is from the same root as Sanskrit upálá for "stone".Opal ranges from clear through white, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, shore, blue, magenta, rose, pink, slate, olive, brown, and black. Of these hues, the reds against black are the most rare, whereas white and greens are the most common.Opals are also Australia's national gemstone. Opal is one of the mineraloids that can form or replace fossils. The resulting fossils appeal to collectors, though they are not of any extra scientific interest.

Opal comes in many colors such as the milk opal, milky bluish to greenish, resin opal which is honey-yellow with a resinous luster, wood opal which is caused by the replacement of the organic material in wood with opal, menilite which is brown or grey, hyalite is a colorless glass-clear opal sometimes called Muller's Glass, geyserite, also called siliceous sinter, deposited around hot springs.



Australia produces around 97% of the world’s opal. 90% is called ‘light opal’ or white and crystal opal. White makes up 60% of the opal productions but cannot be found in all of the opal fields. Crystal opal or pure hydrated silica makes up 30% of the opal produced, 8% is black and only 2% is boulder opal.