opal

It's when a gem becomes rare, hard to find, and near impossible to find, that we give more value to it. The person possessing it feels a sort of power because they truly are special because they own something not everyone is capable of owning!


A painting is valuable because the artist is dead, meaning no more paintings will ever be created again by this artist. Jewels like opal, diamonds, sapphires, and more gain their value due to the amount of work, the rare occurrence of even finding one, and the perceived value of all those variables.


What's a mystery to most people is how does a diamond trump a ruby in value? If they are both "precious stones" then shouldn't they be valued the same? Not necessarily. All gems have a history as well as it's rarity to give it value. Diamonds are the zenith of the jewels to own because they are the most difficult and expensive to find. This gave rise to their current meaning in love- rare and precious, and as beautiful as life itself twinkling in the light. It's dazzling and mesmerizing- just like love. Some would say that it's association to love is not unlike a famous person's association to any brand or product- people associate the two as credible based on the higher valued component.


If ruby's were associated with love more so than diamonds, would the ruby not be the new diamond? Possibly, but there are even more things going on there that make that decision in the hearts and minds of those who love jewels.


An interesting thing to note is that opal is one of the more interesting jewels because of its almost magical ability to bend light and to reflect a rare variety of colors back to your eyes. They seem to dance as even if the gem was sitting on a counter with nothing moving it, not even vibrations, the colors would still move around. This opal effect is known as "fire".


There are two types of opal. One is common and easily found everywhere on earth. This type is said not to have any fire (plain, lacking the color changing effects). The second type is known as precious and rare opal. This type contains the fire and the more fire it has, the more precious it's said to be. Precious means expensive as well because of it's rare nature and bedazzling effects on the person looking at it.


Like red gathers your conscious attention first always- the fire filled opal can grab and hold your attention with much more power. It's so beautiful to look at you would argue that the diamond should be an opal instead- used in wedding rings and jewelry symbolizing love. The opal has some fascinating history. Stories of kings offering up a third of their kingdom for a single opal, and queens that fancied them so much she had an entire collection of opals of every kind- the precious variety bedazzle this gem and give it even more value. Many in the old times (and still in some places throughout the world as well) think/thought the opal had magical powers and brought luck into the lives of those who wore it.