How To Choose The Right Opal
This unretouched photo embodies Oli and Tess Jewelry. The sunkissed skin and hair. Natural, un-retouched body and hands, and wearable jewelry. It’s all sexy to me. It means warm summer days and spaghetti strap dresses. Days spent at the beach with naked, sandy babies or swimming with friends in the sunset. Those days are my favorite time to spend with family and friends, and their colors are forever burned into my memories.
Opals are sexy; their luminescence captivates and sparks the imagination. Their natural beauty doesn’t need fancy settings or colored genstone borders. A thick gold frame highlights the opal’s colors without distraction. The colors in the opal dictate which metal color I use. Opals with blues and greens often look better with yellow gold, and ones with purples and blues are best accented with rose gold.
I only use Australian opals, and I prefer crystal opals to the more pricey black ones. While I appreciate a stunning black opal, I find it hard to wear. Their bright colors tend to clash with what I am wearing, so they can be limiting. Black opals are formed through a similar process to crystal opals, but with the presence of trace elements like carbon and iron oxide, which give the stone its dark body tone. I prefer the crystal opal that has more translucent, pastel colors that blend and bring out one's skin tone. Crystal opals have a light, transparent to translucent body, allowing light to pass through, while black opals have a dark body tone (dark grey to black) that absorbs light, hence their distinct names.
Opals form from silica, a mineral composed of silicon and oxygen, and water, typically through a process of weathering and deposition over extended periods. This process often occurs in areas with underground water tables and environments rich in silica. As water containing dissolved silica flows through cracks and voids in rocks, it may evaporate, leaving behind tiny silica spheres that, when stacked in a specific arrangement, create the opalescent effect. I am rendered speechless when I think of the Earth forming these stunning layers of light!
When I finished my first collection and saw the jewelry together, this photo is the photo I had envisioned in my head, and somehow I captured it with minimal effort. My stunning model was not a model but my neighbor’s nanny (a yogi surfer during her free time). This photo captures how I want you to feel when you wear a piece of Oli and Tess jewelry, even if you are not perfect like my model! We are all human and natural. I want my jewelry to make you feel beautiful in your skin. I want it to enhance you, not distract from you. So when you choose a piece, make sure it enhances your skin tone and choose an opal that reminds you of something, someone or somewhere you love!
Here is a photo of what pre-cut opal looks like in its natural form.
