A Guide to Opals?

[SparklieBug]

I've been rummaging about in CS, and looking for a guide to opals, and opal terminology. I adore the look of Australian black opals, and wonder what I should be looking for or is it just "go with what my eyes love"? Is there anything that makes certain opal more expensive than others? What makes good quality opal?

 

[missy]

You might find this helpful



“

• Play-of-color:
  The most important factor, referring to the vivid and varied colors that appear when light hits the opal; a high-quality opal will have a strong, vibrant play of color with large, well-defined color patches.
  
  
• Background color:
  A dark background color like black or dark grey usually enhances the play-of-color, making it more visible.
  
  
• Pattern:
  The arrangement of the color play, with desirable patterns including "harlequin" (checkerboard), "ribbon" (flowing lines of color), and "flagstone" (large, distinct color blocks).
  
  
• Clarity:
  The degree of transparency and absence of inclusions (cracks, bubbles).
  
  
• Cut:
  The way the opal is cut can significantly impact its appearance, with well-cut opals maximizing the play-of-color.
  

Important points to remember:

• "Dead spots":
  Areas on the opal where no color play is visible, which detract from its value.
  
  
• Fire opal:
  A type of opal with a red-orange color play, often valued for its saturation and intensity.
  “
  

 

[mellowyellowgirl]

I’m a total newbie but from a newbie perspective I found this channel really useful!

Black Opal Direct

Discover the world’s finest Australian opals as they transform from rough stones into breathtaking gems. Justin brings his unique expertise to creating and cutting stunning opals, sourced directly from Lightning Ridge, Australia. Join me in exploring the incredible beauty of these gemstones...

youtube.com

I’ve been watching lots and lots of videos, looking at all his opals and basically forming my own opinion about what I like.

Haha my one very basic take away is that any red, pink or orangey flashes are more valuable than blues and greens.

Buuut I was able to nab a super bright aquarish /green blue opal that I loved at a fair price thanks to all the videos! Not from the vendor, from a second hand shop in Japan but it helped me make a decision (along with my son threatening to buy it but that’s another matter).

 

[Starstruck8]

Calling @yssie and @Autumn in New England, who have had experience buying high quality opals.

You might find this helpful



“

• Play-of-color:
  The most important factor, referring to the vivid and varied colors that appear when light hits the opal; a high-quality opal will have a strong, vibrant play of color with large, well-defined color patches.
  
  
• Background color:
  A dark background color like black or dark grey usually enhances the play-of-color, making it more visible.
  
  
• Pattern:
  The arrangement of the color play, with desirable patterns including "harlequin" (checkerboard), "ribbon" (flowing lines of color), and "flagstone" (large, distinct color blocks).
  
  
• Clarity:
  The degree of transparency and absence of inclusions (cracks, bubbles).
  
  
• Cut:
  The way the opal is cut can significantly impact its appearance, with well-cut opals maximizing the play-of-color.

Important points to remember:

• "Dead spots":
  Areas on the opal where no color play is visible, which detract from its value.
  
  
• Fire opal:
  A type of opal with a red-orange color play, often valued for its saturation and intensity.
  “

Haha my one very basic take away is that any red, pink or orangey flashes are more valuable than blues and greens.

Agree with all this. I'd add directionality: Some stones with a few large blocks of colour may look good at some lighting and viewing angles but not at others. This is not such a problem in stones with many smaller blocks of colour.

The catch with these points is that you have to calibrate your eyes and your expectations by looking at stones in person. It's like visiting a foreign country - what the guidebooks say is true, but it doesn't really prepare you for the experience.

IMO, opals are a bit like rubies: stones that match most people's mental image of what a good opal should look like are much rarer and much more expensive than most people expect. Ask me how I know... Be aware, for example, that opals with a true harlequin pattern are next to non-existent.

I second the recommendation to look at https://blackopaldirect.com/
Sort the stones in the shop by price, high to low. Especially, look at the short videos of stones that attract you. This will give you a fair idea of relative values. Just be aware that the lighting (directional, but not single-point) is 'optimal' - the stones won't usually look quite so dramatic in real life.

The site also has lots of useful information and fascinating videos of cutting.

 

[Bron357]

The first thing with opals is type.
Australian opals and Welo opals are very different, especially price wise.
Australian Opals can be solid ie all opal, doublet where a thin sliver of good opal is glued to a backing and triplet where the thin slice of opal glued to a backing also has a crystal or plastic “dome” over the top.
Australian opals come in a few different types ie Black Opal, Crystal Opal, semi crystal, White Opal, Boulder Opal and Matrix Opal.
Black Opal is the most expensive and is graded on background color. The darker the better, though “black” is rare. Black opal is graded from N1 to N4, and N5 and N6 are considered “dark” or “semi black”.
Crystal Opal, then semi crystal opal is considered next best.
White opal has a white base. Boulder Opal is found as seams inside ironstone and Matrix Opal is actually a treated opal, treated with sugar and acid to produce a darker background so speckles of opal can be seen.
Aside from type, colour play is what drives value. Some types of colour play are recognised as patterns ie harlequin, pin fire, broad flash etc.
The colours shown also affects value. Red is the rarest and most desirable colour, followed by orange and yellow. Green and blue are the most common.
Red is rarest because the silica spheres which are what produce light refraction are the biggest and take the longest to develop.
Aside from that there is also extent of colour play. It’s very rare to have an opal that shows 100% colour across its face.
So a Black Opal of N1 and multicolour colourplay with red dominate across 90% of face and a desirable pattern, $30,000 Australian a carat. Very expensive, very rare and very desirable.
This is my Opal ring with 90% colourplay red dominate.
Also my Opal bracelet. Actually known as Jelly Opal, very translucent.

 

[SparklieBug]

I’m on my phone, and will reply more when I’m next on my computer.

Fabulous information and insights, @missy, @mellowyellowgirl , @Starstruck8 , and @Bron357 !

This is precisely what I wanted. I’ll visit the YouTube channel and website, and hopefully get some sleep tonight instead of going deep into the opal lairs.

 

[missy]

Good luck with your search @SparklieBug!
I'm going to tag @jordyonbass as he knows his opals


Here's my Cartier black opal from 1972. My dad bought it for my mom at the Cartier store in NYC on fifth avenue and they gave it to me a few decades later. It's breathtaking in real life and photos don't do it justice but here it is anyway

 

[dk168]

Good luck with your search @SparklieBug!
I'm going to tag @jordyonbass as he knows his opals


Here's my Cartier black opal from 1972. My dad bought it for my mom at the Cartier store in NYC on fifth avenue and they gave it to me a few decades later. It's breathtaking in real life and photos don't do it justice but here it is anyway

I was looking forward to seeing your beautiful ring from Cartier when I saw this thread's title, thank you!

DK

 

[SparklieBug]

Good luck with your search @SparklieBug!
I'm going to tag @jordyonbass as he knows his opals


Here's my Cartier black opal from 1972. My dad bought it for my mom at the Cartier store in NYC on fifth avenue and they gave it to me a few decades later. It's breathtaking in real life and photos don't do it justice but here it is anyway

Your ring is spectacular, and is a great example of the colors and patterns I love.

I also learned (while staying up far too late last night on the website) that I have champagne taste in opals. That’s regrettable.

 

[jordyonbass]

Good luck with your search @SparklieBug!
I'm going to tag @jordyonbass as he knows his opals


Here's my Cartier black opal from 1972. My dad bought it for my mom at the Cartier store in NYC on fifth avenue and they gave it to me a few decades later. It's breathtaking in real life and photos don't do it justice but here it is anyway

Thanks for sending out the bat-signal Missy! And as always, never stop showing off that sublime ring. It will always be the GOAT!!

@SparklieBug there is a lot of good info here, but Opals are a gem that can take a lifetime of reading to learn. If you've got any questions I'm more than happy to help with my years of experience cutting and polishing them!

 

[Catmom]

Good luck with your search @SparklieBug!
I'm going to tag @jordyonbass as he knows his opals


Here's my Cartier black opal from 1972. My dad bought it for my mom at the Cartier store in NYC on fifth avenue and they gave it to me a few decades later. It's breathtaking in real life and photos don't do it justice but here it is anyway

Still my very favorite opal!

 

[Bron357]

Good luck with your search @SparklieBug!
I'm going to tag @jordyonbass as he knows his opals


Here's my Cartier black opal from 1972. My dad bought it for my mom at the Cartier store in NYC on fifth avenue and they gave it to me a few decades later. It's breathtaking in real life and photos don't do it justice but here it is anyway

Yes, @missy magnificent Black Opal is the Opal by which all others are judged (and unsurprisingly come up short).
It is a true gem treasure.

 

[SparklieBug]

@SparklieBug there is a lot of good info here, but Opals are a gem that can take a lifetime of reading to learn. If you've got any questions I'm more than happy to help with my years of experience cutting and polishing them!

Thanks, @jordyonbass ! I can totally understand it could take a lifetime to really "get" opals. From the outside looking in (watching descriptive videos on YouTube and elsewhere, and visiting various website, etc.), opals kind of seem like gymnastics or figure skating in the Olympics—or pearls... Lots of room for the individual describing them to use their interpretations and perhaps have a different viewpoint/evaluation than someone else.

What denotes a "gem" quality? Is that sort of like pearls, where it's kind of in the eye of the beholder/describer? I notice one fellow says that certain opals are collector pieces, and to use them in a ring only if the customer dares. Why? Are opals that fragile that it's a risk to set/wear them? Or is the "if you dare" viewpoint something else?

The above said, I certainly noticed that my fave opals were in the collector category on that site, but I was wondering if something could be just at the edge of "gem" (kind of like pearls) quality, and be (probably slightly) more affordable?

Is a thicker opal more stable (less fragile?) than a thinner opal?

Do all dealers use the N and B descriptors that the blackopaldirect.com uses? Or is it, again, like pearls, where people/site use whatever wording they like to assign a "grade" to an opal?

These are some of the questions/thoughts rambling about in my head late at night when I'm gazing at the beauty, and wide variety of opal qualities!

 

[jordyonbass]

Thanks, @jordyonbass ! I can totally understand it could take a lifetime to really "get" opals. From the outside looking in (watching descriptive videos on YouTube and elsewhere, and visiting various website, etc.), opals kind of seem like gymnastics or figure skating in the Olympics—or pearls... Lots of room for the individual describing them to use their interpretations and perhaps have a different viewpoint/evaluation than someone else.

What denotes a "gem" quality? Is that sort of like pearls, where it's kind of in the eye of the beholder/describer? I notice one fellow says that certain opals are collector pieces, and to use them in a ring only if the customer dares. Why? Are opals that fragile that it's a risk to set/wear them? Or is the "if you dare" viewpoint something else?

The above said, I certainly noticed that my fave opals were in the collector category on that site, but I was wondering if something could be just at the edge of "gem" (kind of like pearls) quality, and be (probably slightly) more affordable?

Is a thicker opal more stable (less fragile?) than a thinner opal?

Do all dealers use the N and B descriptors that the blackopaldirect.com uses? Or is it, again, like pearls, where people/site use whatever wording they like to assign a "grade" to an opal?

These are some of the questions/thoughts rambling about in my head late at night when I'm gazing at the beauty, and wide variety of opal qualities!

Definitely not ramblings at all, these are questions a lot of us asked when we began!

A 'Gem Opal' is one that exhibits 3 predominant colours or more and the more colours you see, the more the stone is generally worth. Having said that, a stone with a kaleidoscope of colours that aren't overly bright may not be worth as much as a stone that has 1-2 colours, is top rated for brightness while technically not being a 'Gem Opal'. So there are a lot of factors to take into account when pricing Opal.

Opals don't rate as highly on the mohs hardness as other gems like Sapphires and Emeralds. However there does seem to be some variation within Opal itself from what I've seen; Coober Pedy tends to be more brittle and less stable than Lightning Ridge, however the best Opal I've found is Andamooka material (not the cooked Matrix stuff). I've got some Andamooka gems in my stock, they are exceptional material and just a general pleasure to work on with the end result being beautiful large gems with layers and layers of colour and very stable gems. This obviously doesn't mean that all Andamooka is stable, hard material and all Coober Pedy is unstable material that is susceptible to breaking - it's just my observation after having cut so many Opals from each location.

If the stone is high value then the seller is probably just giving you the typical warning any gemstone vendor would give about putting collector's gems into jewelry pieces as the dangers in daily wear, poorly set stones etc applies to all gems regardless of type or value.

Thicker Opal tends to be a lot stronger, however I think one thing people don't think about a lot is the shape. In my experience an oval or round shape with a nice medium to high dome will take a lot more abuse than something like a pear or tear drop where you can hit the tip of it and send a lot more shock into a smaller area of the gem if that makes sense. The dome on a round of oval with deflect most knocks to it fairly well.

Most reputable vendors do use the grading system that Justin from Black Opal Direct has pioneered and I use it too, however there is another grading system that I believe Opal Auctions created and is slightly similar:

The BOD system:
Body tone is N1 (Black) - N9 (white)
Brightness is B1 (subdued) - B5 (vivid)

The Opal Auctions system:
Body tone is N1 (Black) - N9 (white)
Brightness is B1 (vivid) - B7 (subdued)

So the major difference between the 2 grading systems is the Brightness scale, the OA system has 2 extra ratings and works in reverse to the BOD grading system. It is worthwhile knowing which system the vendor is using to ascertain the brightness of the Opal.

Hope this helps answer your questions for you!

 

[lovetodream]

So @Bron357, your statement of: “Australian Opals can be solid ie all opal, doublet where a thin sliver of good opal is glued to a backing and triplet where the thin slice of opal glued to a backing also has a crystal or plastic “dome” over the top.” raised a question.

How does one determine if you are being sold a solid opal vs a doublet or triplet? Are those terms used in descriptions? And if you’re buying preloved, how can one best know which type they’re getting?

Thank you all for this thread!

 

[jordyonbass]

So @Bron357, your statement of: “Australian Opals can be solid ie all opal, doublet where a thin sliver of good opal is glued to a backing and triplet where the thin slice of opal glued to a backing also has a crystal or plastic “dome” over the top.” raised a question.

How does one determine if you are being sold a solid opal vs a doublet or triplet? Are those terms used in descriptions? And if you’re buying preloved, how can one best know which type they’re getting?

Thank you all for this thread!

The easiest way to tell this is to look at the side of the Opal, you can see the lamination of the 2 or 3 layers all the way around. A solid stone is *usually* much more uniform from top to bottom. Most Opal vendors will include in their description if it is solid, doublet or triplet.

I say usually as there are cases where a solid stone can look like a doublet, this occurs when there is a crystal-ish colourbar that has formed on a black potch and the stone has been cut to retain the black potch on the back to help the colour pop. I've included the side view of an Opal I used to have to show this.

 

[Bron357]

As @jordyonbass said, you need to see the side of the opal.
However, just to make things a bit tricky some solid black opals have a colour bar sitting naturally on top of potch. So you need to be able to see different aspects of the side to see if it’s perfectly even and straight which is a giveaway for a doublet.

 

[MMtwo]

@jordyonbass I was unable to get to your website, possibly an outage?

 

[jordyonbass]

@jordyonbass I was unable to get to your website, possibly an outage?

I decommissioned it a little while ago as most of my sales come through social media and trade clients nowadays, you can still reach me on either Facebook or Instagram!