The Virgin Valley opal fields of northern Nevada produce a wide variety of precious black, crystal, white, fire, and lemon opal. The black fire opal is the official gemstone of Nevada. Most of the precious opal is partial wood replacement.
Precious opal shows a variable interplay of internal colors, and though it is a mineraloid, it has an internal structure. At microscopic scales, precious opal is composed of silica spheres some 150 to 300 nm in diameter in a hexagonal or cubic close-packed lattice. It was shown that these ordered silica spheres produce the internal colors by causing the interference and diffraction of light passing through the micro-structure of the opal.
The regularity of the sizes and the packing of these spheres determines the quality of precious opal. Where the distance between the regularly packed planes of spheres is around half the wavelength of a component of visible light, the light of that wavelength may be subject to diffraction from the grating created by the stacked planes. The colors that are observed are determined by the spacing between the planes and the orientation of planes with respect to the incident light.
Virgin Valley Precious Opals and Jewelry
Opal jewelry set in Gold or silver, is one of the most fascinating gemstone jewelry that you can buy as nearly every piece is so unique, just like you. And that is true as opal does show of ones personality as an individual as its not just the colors of rainbow ,but also the jewellery design that is important for the individual. And the fact that opals are mostly natural and only few are treated that you can own piece nature.
Opal pendants are great for gifts or to buy for yourself. Old wives tale, say someone should buy you an opal but in today’s modern world you can now buy what you see online.
Pendant designs can have wood or other gemstones and they do make the opal jewelry look classy and for night wear.
Simple elegant Opal pendant designs with simple claw or bezel set are popular and the setter will set the opal so the brightest flash faces person looking or talking to you.
Virgin Valley Opal jewelry is really creative and appeals to everyone’s fashion sense but if you cant find what you like you can always buy opals and take to jeweler to make your own creation.