We should also mention here that there are synthetic opals made of the same chemical composition in the laboratories and imitation opals just made of plastic. There is such a great array of colors, sizes, origins, colors, patterns and natural designs.
The list does go on and opals can also be named after their country of origin, Peruvian Opals, Tanzanian Opals and so on or their color, Pink Opal, Blue Opal. Other categorized opals include Koroit Opals, Yowah Nuts, Dendritic Opals, Opalized Wood Opals, Hyalite Opals. The rock is cut and polished so the opal shows as specks and swirls of flashing color. Flecks of opal are ingrained into little pores or holes found in rocks, usually sandstone or ironstone. The variation from person to person even amongst experienced appraisers is remarkable and shows how difficult it is to value opals. These prices are then combined to give an average figure and this is the price per carat for the week. Several seasoned experts will individually select and price the gems on offer per carat. Some mines have a committee gathered together each week to value the miner's opals. Of course, for valuing, you need to add density of color and patterns to the mix! So the rarity of color tends to follow the rainbow, red and orange the rarest and most expensive and greens and blues being less rare.Īdd this rarity of red coloring to the less common black background and you get the most prized opal gemstone. This is because the larger the spheres within the opal, the more red is seen and larger spheres are less common. Red is generally thought to be the rarest and most sought out color, so it is the most highly valued. Opals come in such an array of colors, including many colors on the same stone that determining the rarest and the most valuable color is a tricky business.
Light hits the spheres and bounces off at different angles and in different directions creating the dazzling light show that give opals their unique look. Opals are made up of millions of tiny spheres of hard silica (imagine a box of ping pong balls but all different sizes) sitting on top of each other. Then we have the 'play-of-color' which is produced by the silica structure of the gemstone. Now, how do they get their colors? There are two parts to the color of an opal, we have the background color of the gemstone which is created (much like most gemstones) by impurities within the silica structure of the stone. Precious opals are further divided into categories and the three main types are White Opals, the most common type of precious opal, Black Opals, which show colors against a dark background, and Fire Opals, which are generally a solid bright yellow, orange or red color. We will pretty much forget about common opal for a while. Opals are divided (broadly) into two types, precious and common, precious opal displays the 'play-of-color' which makes the opal so famous and desired while common do not. Opals possess all the colors of the rainbow but rarely in a neat pattern like a rainbow, more like an abstract painting using the brightest of colored paints. Add to this the brilliance and variety of the different colors contained within this phenomenon and you have a remarkable gem.ĭescribing the color of an opal is not an easy thing to do. The reason for this is the mysterious play-of-color that is displayed as the stone moves.
It has also been regarded as the most beautiful and exciting of all gemstones by many. These precious stones are often up to 20% water and made up of tiny spheres of silica and oxygen formed in cracks in rocks or layers of clay or even inside fossils. Opals flash the colors of a rainbow as you turn or move the gemstone in a phenomenon known as play-of-color. Very few gemstones have adorned man since the dawn of history but opals alongside diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and pearls are one of them. How did the word come about? There was no other way of describing the dazzling play-of-color displayed by opals, a flaming red leaping from a milky background, a metallic blue dancing in the dark, neon greens waving to and fro, nothing else like it exists. A beautiful word with a beautiful meaning - brightness, brilliance, shimmer, sparkle, glitter, sheen, iridescent, the list continues. Opalescent, the word just rolls off the tongue. Natural Opal Gemstones Opal Basic Information
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