Jewelry Blog

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Opal is a very beautiful gemstone, used as a lucky charm in some countries, and is an amorphous form of hydrous silica. It was considered as unlucky because of its fragility and tendency to break and scratch easily. Because of the high percentage of water content, it may be damaged by the heat and cold. These gemstones are found in different hues and colors such as black, red yellow and white, and are considered the queen of gemstones. Several varieties of this gemstone are available and each variety is attractive in it own way. The different types include harlequin, common, fire, water, wood and precious. Finest and the most expensive types can be found in Australia where recently, several new deposits have been discovered. Although most of the world’s production comes from Australia, the fire variety in particular, are found in Mexico. Other countries such as Honduras, Mexico, former Czechoslovakia and Brazil produce minor amounts of this gemstone. Typically, the stones are found in sandstone or clay stone units.

The harlequin variety provides rich prismatic colors flashing from minute fissures. It is available in many shades such as blue, yellow and red specks and is lucid. The common form of the stone is of dull white or milky blue in color which produces same effect of harlequin type but to limited level because of its opacity. The color of fire opal ranges from hyacinth-red to honey yellow, and shows reflections of intense orange and red fire.
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