Types Of Opal Rings

Understanding opal starts with understanding the basic types of opal found.

Types of opal rings.

Black opal is the most valuable type of opal and it is predominantly found in lightning ridge. Boulder opal is opal that has formed along with another rock called ironstone. Solid opal can be a combination of precious opal and common opal. Most white opal have muted pastel colors.

Shells of coarse hardened sandy clay with layers of opal in between. Boulder opal presents beautifully in jewelry of all types including men s jewelry. Meaning that the surface is often but not always undulating people who are more progressive in their jewellery tastes prefer these stones. Boulder opal is similar to black opal except that the foreground colour is very thin and sits on a brown ironstone base.

Thin to thick seams of white or black. The opal is the central kernel and never reaches the outer edge. Ironstone on which the opal formed. Solid opal type 1 opal solid opal is a name used for a rough or cut stone that consists entirely of opal material without any host rock or other significant inclusions contained within the stone.

Most of this type of opal comes from the opal fields in queensland where there is a huge belt that spreads thousands of kilometers where this type of opal is produced. These types of opal can come with interesting hills and valleys on the surface. Solid opal is also known as type 1 opal. In this video justin will take you through the four main australian opal types as well as a newly discovered one not yet gone mainstream.

When the parent stone is visible alongside the opal as in the pendant shown here it is called boulder matrix opal. The material is cut and polished with the opal material still attached to the parent material e g. Australia produces various types of opals.