The Black Opal - Simply Magnificent
Black Opals and opal jewelry have been adored since antiquity. The Roman Pliny talks often about the magnificence of opals, and later even the great William Shakespeare had his characters discuss them. They were talking about opals and in those days the Australian black opal hadn't even been found. But today the black opal is a symbol of beauty in nature. When people around the world talk about the magnificence of opal they are almost always talking about Australian black opal. What are we talking about when we mean black opal? Without discussing crystalline structures and all that gemology jargon let's just think about how it compares with other types. When you look at a black opal you will see that it has a black or very dark base. It is just as if you had a glass of black paint. That's the black base that I am talking about. Then you put in some bright colored pieces of plastic. Let's say you put in some blues and some reds and some yellows. Now we are talking about...