New Black Opal

[pregcurious]

Very pretty!

 

[distracts]

That looks wonderful - the setting is perfect for the stone.

 

[jstarfireb]

It's perfectly gorgeous, and the bezel looks very well-made.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Just picked up my ring from the post office! Here are some quick camera shots, I love it!

Haha, don't worry, I won't actually be wearing it stacked with my bands like this, I know it would ruin all the lovely miligrain etc... It's a shame though cause it looks so pretty!

 

[chrono]

Beautiful clean lines and such simplicity is beautiful is its own way.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

And some more photos.
I wish I could capture the glow of the flash, it just glows and glitters.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Last few

 

[Richard M.]

I've not seen a solid opal with a base like this one. Normally when there's a division around the side it's a doublet (or triplet). It could be that this one has just quite a lot of matrix on the sides and bottom but I would have expected to see some of the colour play at the sides rather than a solid darker colour? I'm really interested in knowing more.

It's a very nice natural solid black opal. I just cut three similar intense blue/green black opals from Lightning Ridge, Australia. While some might mistake such stones as doublets, the structure is typical of opals from Lightning Ridge which yields the finest black opal gems on the planet. The following image of a face-polished rough opal illustrates how fine precious material is often sandwiched between layers of black "potch" opal. When cut as a single gem the black background intensifies the precious opal colors.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Thanks Richard, that's what my vendor told me as well.

Also, when I had another local gemologist take a look at it, he found the bit of sand that you can see in the stone reassuring as to it being solid. Though I guess it's hard to explain without seeing it, but I swear it defies being photographed. Haha. It's sort of like a small inclusion in your faceted stone that makes you feel more at ease about it being natural, lol.

 

[Arkteia]

How did I miss this thread? Great opal, MTG, and Jill's work is impeccable, as always, and it suits the stone so well! Congratulations! Wear it in good health and in good mood!