What is Opal?

Opal is the birthstone for October and gets its name from the word, “Opalus” which means “seeing a change in colour”. This gemstone can be found in a broad array of colours – our favourites include the Pink and White opal. The white opal is made partly of water, which is trapped inside the gemstone, creating a completely unique play of colours. The pink opal doesn’t have the same reflective qualities but is in turn a creamy pink nuance. Read along to learn more about Opals.

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October's birthstone

Opal is the birthstone for October, accompanied by Tourmaline. This makes jewellery set with Opal a great gift for someone with a birthday in October.

Wearing your birthstone is said to bring good luck – wear your own birthstone as a good-luck amulet, or the birthstone of someone you care about as a token of your love.

Opal's spiritual symbolism

The Opal’s spiritual qualities include: Creativity, freedom, love, fidelity and consciousness. Opal is a great ally, as it’s said to help you get rid of negative emotions. Opal is also said to contain a freeing quality, letting you focus on creativity and self-expression. The opal is likewise a gemstone connected to love – especially the Pink Opal is said to
have a great influence on romantic and platonic friendships.

Wedding anniversary

Opal is traditionally gifted on a 14th
wedding anniversary, which is also called an Ivory wedding. Jewellery set with a pink opal with its soft and romantic expression, could be a perfect gift to your partner, as well as jewellery with a white opal’s rainbow complexion.

Opal throughout history

In the early 1800s, the novel “Anne of Geierstein” gave the opal a reputation for being the bringer of bad luck, as it connected the gemstone to tragedies. However, the opal’s good reputation was partly
resurrected by the mid-1800s, as Queen Victoria and her daughters wore notable jewellery set with opals, making the gemstone modern and popular around the globe. Opal’s popularity rose again during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods around the early 1900s when numerous highly detailed pieces of jewellery were once again decorated with opals.

Legends and folk-tales

According to folktales and ancient legends, the opal was considered to have many mysterious qualities. In ancient Greece, the opal was thought to yield supernatural powers such as farsightedness and protection against diseases, while ancient Romans used the opal as a symbol of hope and love. Around the Arabian Peninsula, it was thought that the opal was created following a strike of lightning.

Gemology

Opal consists of hydrated silicate minerals and can contain up to 20% water. This gemstone obtains its colourful reflective qualities from its tightly packed layer of silicate and is categorized from 5-6.5 on Mohs’ Hardness Scale – a scale measuring gemstone hardness from 1-10, where 10 is the hardest. More than 90% of all opals are found in Australia, but can also be found in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and the USA.