Crafting opal jewelry is where artistry meets sparkle and a little bit of magic! With a keen eye and a wild imagina...
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN SHOPPING AT THE OPAL DEALER
Description
Add the perfect finishing touch of fire and color with our versatile 6mm Lab-Grown Opal Rondelles. Often called spacer beads or knot covers, these slim, 'donut-shaped' beads are a jewelry maker's essential. The large 2mm hole is expertly designed to conceal knots for a clean, professional finish, while their brilliant opal fire makes them stunning enough to be a focal point. Available in over 25 of our most popular colors, you can find the perfect match to complement any design, from vibrant charm bracelets to elegant necklaces.
Product Specifications
| Material | Lab-Grown Opal (80% Silica, 20% Polymer) |
|---|---|
| Color | Over 25 options available |
| Shape | Rondelle / Spacer Bead |
| Diameter | 6mm |
| Thickness | 4mm |
| Hole Size | 2mm (Center Drilled) |
| Quantity | Sold by the Individual Rondelle Bead |
| Hardness | 4 on the Mohs scale |
| Heat Resistance | Up to 250°F / 120°C |
Why Choose Our Opal Rondelles?
- The Perfect Finish: With a large 2mm hole, these rondelles are specifically designed to slide over and conceal knots, giving your handmade jewelry a seamless, professional look.
- Brilliant Spacer Beads: Elevate your designs by using these rondelles as spacers between larger beads. The brilliant opal fire adds a pop of luxury and color that complements any gemstone or material.
- Vast Color Selection: With over 25 colors to choose from—from the fiery passion of Black Fire to the delicate elegance of Pearl White—you're sure to find the perfect shade for any project.
- Unmatched Stability: Like all our opals, these are guaranteed not to crack, craze, or yellow over time, ensuring your beautiful creations last a lifetime.
Creative Applications
- Knot Covers: The ideal solution for finishing stretch bracelets and knotted necklaces with a clean, decorative touch.
- Spacer Beads: Use them between pearls, gemstone beads, or metal components in bracelets and necklaces to add spacing and a vibrant flash of opal fire.
- Dainty Focal Points: String a single rondelle on a delicate chain for a minimalist necklace or create a simple pair of elegant earrings.
- Macrame & Fiber Arts: The large hole makes them perfect for incorporating into macrame, leather, and other fiber-based craft projects.
Please Note: Our lab-created opals can withstand heat up to approximately 250°F. Due to their unique composition, every rondelle is unique and color may vary. Please see our individual product pages for more detailed photos of each color.
Why Choose Lab-Grown Opal Over Natural Opal?
Lab-grown opal represents the perfect marriage of nature’s beauty and human ingenuity. It captures the mesmerizing fire of the world’s rarest opals while delivering significant advantages in durability, ethics, and vibrancy. Here’s why choosing a lab-grown opal for your jewelry is a brilliant decision.
Engineered for Everyday Life
The most significant advantage of lab-grown opal is its superior strength and stability. Natural opal is famously delicate, containing a high water content that makes it prone to cracking and "crazing" from impacts or temperature changes. This fragility is why it's often avoided for daily-wear pieces like engagement rings.
Our lab-grown opals solve this problem. By creating the opal in a controlled environment, a gem is produced that is far more resilient and durable. You can wear your opal jewelry with confidence every day, without the constant worry of damaging your precious stone.
Unmatched Vibrancy & Fire
While natural opals can be stunning, their quality and play-of-color can be inconsistent. The beauty of a lab-grown opal is the remarkable consistency and vibrancy of its fire. The process cultivates a flawless, intricate structure that results in a breathtaking and uniform play-of-color, a feature typically found only in the most expensive mined opals.
An Ethical & Sustainable Sparkle
Choosing a lab-grown opal is a choice you can feel good about. Our opals are grown above ground, completely bypassing the environmental disruption and ethical concerns associated with traditional mining. There is no destructive land use, no murky supply chains, just pure, beautiful opal created with a clear conscience.
Accessible Luxury
We offer these incredible gemstones at a more accessible price point than their mined counterparts of similar quality. Lab-grown opals make the breathtaking beauty of this unique gem available to more people and for more types of jewelry, allowing you to own a piece of rare beauty without the rare price tag.
With lab-grown opal, you no longer have to choose between breathtaking beauty and practical durability. You get the fire of a rare gemstone with the resilience for everyday life. A modern, ethical, and accessible treasure designed to last a lifetime.
How Our Lab-Grown Opal is Made
Our lab-grown opal, also known as synthetic opal or man-made opal, is a marvel of science, capturing the dazzling beauty of natural opal in a controlled environment. The result is a gemstone material with spectacular, consistent color and fire. While created in a lab, it shares the same fundamental composition as its natural counterpart: silica.
Lab-grown opal provides a brilliant and ethical alternative to mined opal. It offers not only affordability but also enhanced durability for creative projects. Unlike natural opal, which can be prone to cracking or crazing, our opal is stabilized with a polymer. This special impregnation process makes the material much stronger and easier to work with, perfect for jewelry, ring making, and other crafts. Please note, because of this polymer stabilization, the material cannot be exposed to the high heat of activities like glassblowing.
The Creation Process
Growing opal is a slow and precise art that mimics nature's own method, refined by science. The entire process, from start to finish, can take over a year to complete.
Step 1: Forming the Foundation
The journey begins with a solution of microscopic silica spheres suspended in water. This solution is the basic building block of opal. Nothing can be rushed here; the silica must be allowed to settle naturally.
Step 2: The Long Wait for Color
Over several months, these tiny silica spheres gradually sink and stack themselves into a highly ordered, tightly packed lattice. It is this perfectly uniform structure that gives opal its unique magic. As light passes through, the structure acts like a prism, diffracting the light and splitting it into a vibrant, dancing spectrum of color. This phenomenon is known as "play-of-color."
Step 3: Stabilization and Hardening
Once the silica structure is perfectly formed, the water is slowly and carefully removed. The material is then infused with a polymer to add strength and stability. This crucial step enhances the opal's durability, making it resistant to impact and cracking. The block is then allowed to fully harden into a solid mass.
Step 4: Revealing the Beauty
The rough block of lab-grown opal is now ready to be transformed. Just like a natural gemstone, it is skillfully cut, shaped, and polished to reveal the breathtaking patterns and colors locked inside. This process results in a stunning material ready for endless creative applications.
Shipping & Processing
Processing Times & Shipping Offers:
- Processing Times: 1-3 Business Days *Unless otherwise specified
- US orders over $50 are eligible for Free Ground Shipping via USPS (estimated 3-5 business days)
6mm Opal Rondelle Beads
$6.00
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