Jewelry

[qvcfreak]

My birthstone is Opal and I've always wanted a really good one with lots of color on a pendant. Still looking. 

[FastDogWalker2]

I am an October baby too.  I like opals but don't love them.  I have an opal necklace that also has a small amethyst stone in the setting that I like. I purchased it at an art show.  Opal rings have been difficult for me - they are fragile and most are set in yellow gold and I tend to wear more white metals.  DH has travelled to Australia for work and brought me a pretty ring and necklace - both in yellow gold - but I don't wear them much.

[FlyersGirl]

Opal is my birthstone and I love them. I have many different types of Opal jewelry including Australian jelly Opal, Black Opal, Boulder Opal, Blue and Pink Opal cabochons, Ethiopian Opal and Brazilian and Mexican Fire Opal. Mexican Fire Opal is my favorite. 

@Pezzie The opals in your picture are so pretty, with lots of red fire. I would give that teardrop shaped one a home. 

[depglass]

I believe these are black opals perhaps even Lightning Ridge.  Fire opals are several shades of orage-red.  If I'm wrong I'd like to know.

Do we have an opal expert?

[kindred cats]

Maybe Jane T. would know....

[songbird]

I'm not an expert but  they're my birth stone, and I usually dislike them. The only valuable ones are the black opals from  Australia. The reason is  that those opals are the only kind that have carbon and iron oxide and are very hard to find. That gives them the dark color. Those aren't too bad.  They have nice colors mixed in to the crystal.  i especially like them when they are fused together for the "night and day" look. Very expensive! They are deliberately set apart from other opals by their setting (diamonds, 18K or platinum).  The others I've seen always seem to be set in silver. I made my birth stone the September ones (sapphires)  Only the Black Opals are considered precious.  The rest are semi precious.

[depglass]

Thank you songbird.  More info than I've heard in a long time.  I take back my black opal guess on the photo and replace it with Australian opals.  Personally I love all opals, from Ethiopian up to black, value-wise.  One clarification, fire opals from Mexico are an orange shading to red solid color stone, no inclusions to refract light.  Remember Paul Deacy?  He had a short stint on QVC, along with every other jewelry-showing network.  He would always bring up the supersition problem.  I've always wondered how many sales he lost doing that.

[songbird]

@depglass  I don'trlememberr Paul.  I've been watchingQVCC since the mid 2000's.  Yes, I've seen Ethiopeann opals.  They are nice looking.

Around the turn of the20thh century, (maybe earlier) Opals developed a very bad reputation. Thanks to a lurid novel. It became an  international bestseller, these stones became known as bad luck.  To this day, superstitions about them still linger.  Since it is my birthstone, I've read about them. It was so bad, that opal market did not recover until maybe the 1960's.  I appreciate the Australian opal (black opals) for their beauty, but I don't own any kind of opal. There are also white opals.  And of course I've heard of the Mexican Fire opal.  The specific black opal has an official name of Lightning Ridge (named for the mines)  So rare, they are only found there. Another reason for precious status.

[Pagan]

I only have small colorful but white based opals that I bought on various trips to Australia. 
 
But my sister's mother-in-law had the most amazing opal ring. Not white at all, the base color was dark and reddish. When she wore it out to dinner, it would often draw rock hounds from across the room, they would hover politely at her table asking if they could possibly take a closer look! 
 
When she died, she left it to my mom, but its next recipient will be back in the original family line - unfortunately for me, as I would dearly love to have it!

[candys mine]

My Mom had a few opal pieces.  One set she had was a pin and earring set that looked like teardrop balloons with milky opal chips suspended in liquid inside. the "balloon" was suspended from a gold bow.  Very pretty effect as they floated around with any motion.  I've never seen another set quite like it.