Opal Pendant with diamond accents - Designed and crafted by Nick King

There is nothing like a brilliant opal with that rainbow-like iridescence that flashes a myriad of colors in one beautiful stone! Whether arranged as broad-flash color (big chunks of fire) or pin-fire (countless tiny dots of color), it has become a huge favorite among jewelry and gemstone enthusiasts. Most of today's finest opal comes from Australian deposits and is grouped by its background color as either white opal or the more rare black opal. With a hardness of around 5, extra care should be taken to protect an opal in its jewelry setting.

Tourmaline: (not shown) Tourmaline comes in every hue. It forms in long hexagonal crystals that involve several shades of color, with the best gemstones being mined in the mountains of Sri Lanka, Brazil, and Africa. An excellent choice for jewelry, the tourmaline needs little care, except to protect it from harsh scratches (its hardness is 7 1/2).