Lab created opal jewelry could be the perfect combination of beauty and budget if you can find a jeweler that takes the time to build a quality piece of jewelry. Much of the lab created opal rings and jewelry you see on the internet or at craft shows is cheaply made and mass-produced in China. You will notice the lab opal in lower quality jewelry all looks very uniform and usually is cut so it flashes tiny pin fires of blues and greens or sometimes pinks and purples. This uniformity is what makes it obvious to an educated buyer that the stone is laboratory grown or "lab opal". Natural Australian opals have a more random color pattern and fire that is difficult to mimic with man-made opal unless you take the time to cut the opal at different angles and waste a lot of material to get to the more random firing areas of the stone. This increases the material cost and labor time so most jewelry manufactures are not willing to go to these lengths to make sure the opal in your piece of jewelry looks more natural.
Several years ago Mark and I began experimenting with lab created opals. We applied our 30 years of experience cutting Australian opals and soon discovered that with some strategic cutting techniques, we could create laboratory grown opal jewelry that rivaled the colors and fire of our exquisite Australian opal jewelry designs. We began producing top quality lab created jewelry, including lab opal rings for both men and women and developed a lab opal jewelry website to showcase our work. A quick scan of the website immediately tells you our lab opal jewelry is different. You will notice the nice heavy weight mountings and the masterfully inlaid lab opal in colors you don't typically see in mass-produced lab opal jewelry and rings. We are a hands on father and son team who are involved in every step of the process from initial design to shipping the finished product. We have managed to survive and thrive in the jewelry business since 1974 by providing our customers with quality limited production jewelry and outstanding customer service that doesn't stop at the completion of the sale.
If you are interested in an affordable alternative to Australian opal or would just like to learn a little more about laboratory created opal, head over to LabOpalJewelry.com and see what the Hileman team has to offer. We also offer customization if you would like to personalize your design by choosing your opal color or accent gemstones.
You have to see the difference that expert cutting can make in the fire and overall look of lab created opal jewelry. Visit LabOpalJewelry.com and browse through the lab opal jewelry photos and better yet, watch some of the lab opal jewelry videos so you can see the fire and movement of the colors as the jewelry rotates.