A fine opal’s beauty is elusive and challenging to capture in words. Precious opal’s unique display of flashing rainbow colors, called play-of-color, have captured the imagination for centuries. Writers have compared opals to volcanoes, galaxies and fireworks. You’ll be captivated by the beauty of these petite black opal and diamond stud earrings in 14 kt white gold. The medium dark blue background color with flashes of neon blue and green play-of-color as the earrings move is simply spellbinding! The dazzle of the near colorless diamonds adds to the allure!
The jewelry industry categorizes precious opals, those with play-of-color, into two categories (white opal and black opal), based on its background color (the base or body color of the opal exclusive of its play-of-color). White opals, the most common of the precious opals, display background colors of white or pale yellow or brown. Black opals, the more rare of the two, display background colors of black, very dark grey, blue, green or brown.
Gordon’s Design Notes: I’ve long held an interest in precious opal gemstones, but wanted to focus my design efforts on transparent gemstones. I had the good fortune to meet John Ford, the award winning black opal jewelry designer, at an AGTA GemFair show where he was displaying some of his black opal jewelry pieces from his Lightning Ridge Collection by John Ford. As we talked, I decided offering one of his pieces on my website would create a couple interesting possibilities. First, it would expand my offerings to include precious opal and second, it would serve as a test to help determine if I should offer more of John’s pieces in the future.
Price: $2500
Stock Number: E-10
EARRING INFORMATION:
Shape: oval
Metal: 14 kt white gold
Rhodium Treated?: yes
Length (top to bottom): 10 mm (approx. 3/8 inch)
Width (maximum side to side): 8 mm (approx. 5/16 inch)
Deep (maximum front to back): 4.5 mm (approx. 3/16 inch)
Style: pierced; studs
Closure Type: post with a friction back
Piece weight (gms): 2.6 gms
Total carat weight (TCW) piece: 1.81 cts
COLORED STONE INFORMATION:
Species or variety of colored stones: black opal
Color: medium dark blue with neon blue and green play of color
Number of colored stones: 2
Shape: ovals
Treatments/enhancements: none
Total carat weight (TCW) of colored stones: 1.54 cts
COLORLESS SCALE DIAMOND INFORMATION:
Number of diamonds: 40 pieces
Shape: round
Average color and rating: GH
Clarity range: VS1-VS2
Average clarity rating: VS1
Treatments/enhancements: none
Total carat weight of diamonds (DCW): 0.27 cts