Opal was not always the price. Its popularity is dependent on fashion and fashion - from superstition. The reason is superstition was incredible color saturation of the stone. The rich palette of colors it can not only admire, but also the scaring. And when you consider the ability of stone to lose luster, change color when heated or contaminated - it is possible to imagine a mystical ecstasy and horror, covering our ancestors.
For the ancient Romans it was a symbol of fidelity. It Opal was inserted into the crown of Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, who claimed that if the stone glows in the dark, guarded the royal power, honor and life itself. This stone supposedly helped with eye disease, protected from the torment, contended against violence. It was the elixir of strength and faith. However, the superstitious Constantine concelebrated disgrace disservice. In his stories about the miraculous properties of the opal he mentioned that the stone allows the owner to be made invisible. And the stone immediately became a talisman of the patron of thieves and horse thieves. For Opal, a period of notoriety. However rare, the unusual beauty of the stone is still back in popularity. The final revival of the fashion Opal occurs in 1877, after the discovery of large deposits in Australia. History of the discovery of Australian deposits is also interesting. Hunter, chasing kangaroos, mortally wounded animal, which is trying to jump to his feet, tore layers of sod. View Hunter opened the stunning beauty of semiprecious lived, shining like a rainbow. The observed field is owned by the Queen of England. Commercial interests of the British Crown demanded that the opal was mined and sold. And Queen Victoria advertises their goods. At the receptions and balls, in parliament and on the racetrack, in the church and the theater, she appears in the jewelry with opals. In our time, precious opal is one of the most prestigious gems.
Precious opals are rare. Even in the extremely rich deposits of opal, noble of his species make up only 1%. Commercial deposits of precious opals are known in Europe and South America, but are unique deposits of Australia, giving 80-95% of world production of opal. Noble Opal - the brother of a diamond, its lush coloration is the result of a complex play of reflected light (opalescence), and is not related to the chemical composition of stone, that is the color of the opal - just an optical effect. The exception is the precious fire opal, the color of stone is caused by impurities, chromophores. "Generosity" and the value of opal is determined by the number of pure colors (maximum of four: red, yellow, green, blue), which can be seen on the surface of the stone, in other words, the spectrum, which splits the reflected light. This phenomenon - the reason the game diamond, thanks to which it is called the "king of precious stones." Opal - a member of the royal family.
Depending on the color and type of opalescence distinguish the following varieties of precious opal white opal - with opalescence on the background of light gray or light blue colors, harlequin - a polychrome mosaic pattern opalescence, folded in a different color mosaic of geometric shapes, black opal - the background color dark color and it looks particularly striking opalescence, fire opal - yellow, red opalescence with spectacular color of the flame. And it's not all because of disgrace - it is a separate space, and the format of a journal article does not permit a detailed description of all varieties. The most valuable is black precious opal, the attractiveness of the stone due to its rare and beautiful diamond play of reflected light in a velvet-black, dark purple, dark blue, dark green, dark brown background.
Opal - Natural solid silica hydrogel with a non-water content: it can range from a few percent up to one third the mass of the stone. Opal is brittle and not very strong (about 5.5-6.5 on the Mohs scale). Precious opals are usually processed in the form of flat cabochons, as in this case, the opalescence is seen across the surface of the insert. Facet cut adopted for transparent gems, handle only fire opals. Since there is water in the mineral, often unpredictable behavior of the stone. Sometimes it is "dry" and its luster, it cracks. Sometimes, dropped into a liquid dye or just dirty water, changes its color to the recognition. Stone does not tolerate heat, and therefore requires special precision jewelers and caution, and the owners - careful treatment.
For a long time it was not possible to synthesize opal. For the first time a patent for the manufacture of precious opal, Australian got mineralogists A. Gaskin, and P. Darre. And in 1973 Pierre Gilson Swiss company offered customers a wide range of variety of synthetic opals worth orders of magnitude cheaper than natural. Color and Opalescence Opal Gilson is not inferior, and often superior to those of natural stones. Naturally, the production technology is strictly classified. Russia also synthesize artificial opals of high quality (under the guidance of Professor Michael Samoilovich). Visually distinguish synthetic from natural opal is difficult even for the gemologist.
Another way to make it more accessible stone was making doublets and triplets. Doublets are created from thin plates of natural opal, the lower part of which is attached plate of black onyx. Thus, the effect of black opal, but at a price they are much more accessible. Natural is the so-called doublet-Boulder opal, where the thin crust of precious opal is not separated in the processing of species-substrate. Triplets consist of an additional layer of pure silica glass treated with cabochon and overlapping doublet.
As mentioned earlier, opal - the stone difficult. Most believe that it brings bad luck. Occultists almost with one voice insist that Opal may be the only people born under the sign of Libra: for them it is ready to fulfill every desire, and to all others, this stone can be a source of evil and strife. However, the foregoing does not apply to black opal, which, in contrast, is regarded as one of the most powerful charms that bring good luck, regardless of the sign of the zodiac, by which the owner was born.
Thus, opal - the stone complex, and the jeweler and the owner, its hard to imagine a man in the uncertain, superstitious, and on the contrary, it is worthy to decorate the master or mistress of his fate. Jewelry with opal able to highlight the status and power of such people. People are held to cope not only with the opal.
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