Synthetic Opal rough materials
Synthetic Opal have become more common in the past few years. It is used a lot in silver jewelry and also in jewelry that is sold on cruise ships.
Synthetic Opal is nice looking material but it is softer than natural opal. It is a directional material, as you will see in some of the photos below. In one direction it has the checkerboard type of color patches, much like natural Opal does. At 90° it has elongated and striated colors.
Jewelers often send me these for repairs when pieces have fallen out. I keep all of the colors in stock so that I can match them. I think I have only inlaid the synthetic Opal in a new piece of jewelry once.
Jewelers: If you need to re-polish synthetic Opal, you can buff it with your rag buff and ZAM without needing to send it to me. You just need to be gentle with it and keep the friction low.
