What is Opalina?
Shop LC brings you rare and beautiful gems from across the globe. And, few are as scarce as opalina. A unique opalized blend of chrysocolla, opalina only occurs in Peru. The Andus mines produce this gem material. Opalina is blue to greenish blue in color. Often, gem material contains striking natural patterns – no two are alike! An opaque jewel, they are fashioned into cabochons.
To build a several hours long event, the Shop LC team purchased many small parcels of gem material over a span of three years. Why? Opalina is rare. Our buying team purchased all the rough material from the only vendors selling it in Tucson. As new material became available on the market, Shop LC buyers were there to buy it. And, even with this active sourcing, it took several years of patient waiting.
Opalina is porous. Unfortunately, cutting this particular stone is very tough. The material is prone to breaking at nearly every step. Many potential gems were lost as this event was slowly crafted. This quality makes it difficult to cut. So, stones frequently undergo stabilization.
Only expert stone cutters have the skill to shape these jewels to Shop LC specifications. Their expertise helps guide them in unearthing the natural beauty of these gemstones, teasing the unique patterns of these gems to the surface.
Discover beautiful opalina jewelry from Shop LC.
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i’d like to know how making jewelry works from beginning to the end. by this is mean from getting the rough, to enhancement and how each is done, slicing the rough, the faceting, polishing, to forming the metal from the rough blocks, to breaking it down, to forming the design, setting the stones. everything from beginning to end. i understand that this would be a huge undertaking, but it’s something that i’ve always wondered about. like most folks i have just enough knowledge in this area to cover the end of a needle. but i’d love to be able to watch videos showing ever step in some detail. not like showing here is a block of silver and here is the finished item ready to have a stone set. i mean every single step. i believe that i can’t be the only person that would find this interesting. and if it’s broken down into several steps that are easy to understand and follow. i’m not out to learn how to make my own jewelry, i’m just interested in how it all works. even the different enhancement, from waxing, to stablizing, to heating, etc… i’d just like to know how it is all done.
Hi Annetta,
Thanks for the great feedback! We do cover jewelry creation in this blog post. Please, take a look: https://blog.shoplc.com/green-jewelry-ethical-manufacturing-jaipur/.
We’ll try to show more of the production process in future content as well.