Pink opal

Peruvian pink, no flash, cut in Jaipur.

A strand of pink opal reads as one soft color from across a room. Up close it breaks into small differences: one bead a little deeper, the next carrying a cream swirl through its middle. The surface gives the light back in a waxy way rather than a glassy hit. There is no play of color in it, no flash of green or red. People reach for it because the pink is quiet and warm, closer to a garden petal than to candy.

Where it comes from

Opal begins with water. Rain soaks into ground, carries dissolved silica down through rock, and in dry spells the water leaves solid silica behind in cracks and between the layers of sedimentary stone. Pink opal is the common kind: opal-CT mixed with the clay mineral palygorskite and a little chalcedony, slightly translucent to nearly opaque, its pink owed to organic compounds. It never shows play of color, which is the business of precious opal, the sort Australia became known for in the late 1800s. Peru supplies this stone, with the rough coming mainly from the Acari area of Arequipa, the same country that yields pastel blue and green common opal. It has long been sold as beads, cabochons and tumbled stones, and the best of it resembles pink coral while sitting harder on the scale, 5.5 to 6.5. Our strands are cut in Jaipur, India, and chosen strand by strand in Cupertino, California.

What tradition says

Opal carried weight in ancient Rome, where it stood for love and hope and where the name opalus was used as a word for precious stone in general. In 75 AD Pliny wrote of opali that carried such play within them that they matched the deepest colors a painter could mix, others seeming to hold burning sulphur or the blaze of oil. Later writers compared opals to volcanoes, galaxies and fireworks, and gave the great ones names like Pandora, Light of the World and Empress. Pink opal has a quieter reputation. Crystal tradition calls it a stone of emotional calm, something to steady the feelings of the person wearing it. That is tradition, not fact.

These are beliefs people have held about the stone, told as tradition. They are not claims, and not advice.

How makers use it

This is a stone for soft palettes, and it goes where pink is meant to stay gentle: bridal work, spring pieces, gifts for a new baby. We cut it faceted, so the small flat planes pick up light without the surface turning glassy. Faceted ovals at 10x13mm hold the color evenly along a strand, and the 5mm size gives you that same pink at a smaller scale. Marquise reads longer than a round bead of similar weight. Gold fill sits well against the color. We list four strands at present, each chosen for even warm pink without gray. Cream mottling is normal.

Looking after it

Keep pink opal to earrings and necklaces. It is softer than rose quartz, so bracelets scuff it and rings are worse. The stone is porous. No ultrasonic cleaner, no perfume, no soaking, no heat. Put the piece on after scent and lotion, and store it away from anything harder.

Sources: Pictures of Opal - Black, Fire, Boulder, Blue and Pink, Pink Opal gemstone information, Opal History and Lore, Common Opal Can Be Pink, Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple, Orange