Posted 13 years ago
jlennongrrl
(173 items)
My mother bought this for me for my college graduation. I was told it is a fire opal...and until today I had NO idea how hard it was to get a good picture of an opal. Fire has green, red, and blue. The pawn broker thought that it was an older ring, but I'm not sure of the age.
nope -- not a fire opal -- they are orange -- this one is probably from australia and appears to be a white opal -- opals are divided into three groups -- the opalescent precious opals (yours), the yellow red fire opals -- sometimes called the mexican opal and the common opals which are opaque which lack the play of light
just as a sidebar -- opals always contain water which can be as much as 30% -- in the course of time the opal can lose water and can crack and the opalescence diminishes -- this can be avoided temporarily or restored by saturation with oil or water. The aging process is avoided and the opalescence increased when stored in moist absorbend cotton (cotton wool) heat, pressure and acid (no use of vinegar when cooking around your ring) can also be an enemy to the opal -- i personally clean all my opals with banana oil or some type of jewelry cleaner having the banana oil and with that -- that's the end of my story on storage and i'm sticking to as a voice of experience
good head on your mom's shoulders -- when my daughter graduated from high school -- i made her the offer -- you can either have a class ring or we can go to the jewelers and pick out your favorite ring -- she still wears that beautiful sapphire ring -- my stinking class ring has sat in the draw since the day i walked out the hallow halls of hs
lovely ring -- enjoy and treasure it -- my aunt had a gorgeous blue opal that i can still see on her finger to this day -- she wore it daily -- but did make it a habit to take it off when cooking -- that ring is over 80 years old and she is still that beautiful firey blue of the carribean waters -- have a great weekend
Thanks for the info epson. The ring also has a lot of red in it and a few other colors. I could only pick up the blue in the picture. I do periodically oil my opals. My mother gave me her opal she was given at age 16. It was so dull. I oiled it and have restored most of the fire. Thank goodness! Have a good weekend and thanks again
will do -- jlenn