Opal Description and Technicality
The opal used in my pieces is completely natural and hasn’t been changed from its natural state (except for cutting and polishing). It is all Mexican opal.
There are factors that you will read in the description of each opal:
TYPE
- Solid opal: Completely opal with no other material attached. It is sometimes cut as a cabochon (with a round smooth surface) or faceted (with numerous flat surfaces that form a pattern). When the opal is solid it will be omitted in the description, since all my opals are solid except for the boulder opals.
- Boulder opal: Solid opal still attached to the parent rock, in this case rhyolite.
BASE COLOR
- Crystal: Transparent or translucent red, orange, yellow or colorless opal with play-of-color.
- White opal: Opaque white opal with play-of-color
- Fire opal: Orange or red transparent opal with opalescence and no play-of-color.
FIRE
When the light hits the stone it is diffracted and sent out in different colors called fire. Because of its transparent nature, Mexican crystal opal exhibits stronger fire when under a light source, daylight being the preferred one. The fire can have different colors and patterns. Often times there is a dominant fire color, which you will sometimes find in the description of the stone, followed by the secondary color (if present) and the term multicolor when there are three or more equally strong colors.
