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Opal jewelry12/26/2023 Laboratory grown opal is similar in hardness to top quality Australian opal at 6.5 on the Moh's scale. Lab created opal rings and jewelry offer all the colors and beauty of natural opal at a much more affordable price. This process takes more time and creates more waste but the finished product is an amazing lab created opal ring that mimics the fire and colors of the best natural opal. We also rotate the slices and cut at varying angles to break up the uniformity of the patterns. To give your lab opal ring a more "natural" look, Hileman Silver Jewelry takes great care when cutting the opal to carefully select areas of the rough with the least uniformity and most unique color pattern. The uniformity of the pattern is usually an indicator that the opal is lab created. The color pattern is typically larger and more uniform in lab created opal than natural opal. Another difference between lab grown opal and natural opal is the size of the color flashes. This resin gives the lab created opal in your ring more strength, flexibility and durability and greatly reduces the chances of the opal crazing or cracking like some natural opal. The biggest difference is natural opal contains a small amount of water trapped in the structure of the opal and laboratory grown opal contains no water, but instead a polymer resin is added. The lab created opal you see commonly used in colorful opal rings and jewelry is very similar in chemical composition to natural opal.
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