Opal

What does opal mean?

Opal has one of the loosest, most generous reputations in crystal lore: a stone of hope, imagination and emotional honesty. Arabic folklore is said to have held that opals fell from the sky in lightning; Romans carried them for luck; medieval Europeans believed an opal took on the virtues of every gem whose color it showed. Modern practitioners describe opal as a stone for creativity, spontaneity and letting a feeling through rather than holding it back, and place it with the crown and sacral chakras, the bridge between inspiration and making something. People tend to reach for an opal when they want to feel more, not less.

How do people work with opal?

Opal is worn, not charged: practitioners keep it close to the skin so it warms, wear it when they want to amplify a mood rather than steady one, and never leave it in a hot car. Moonlight on a windowsill is the only charging most people bother with. For a set piece, we suggest moonlight, sound or a soft dry cloth for cleansing and charging. Water, salt and soil are hard on the setting and the plating, and the stone does not need them.

How has opal been used through history?

The Romans prized opal above almost every other gem and Pliny described it as holding the fire of ruby, the purple of amethyst and the green of emerald at once. The name is often traced through Latin opalus to a Sanskrit word for precious stone. In the Victorian era it became a favorite for sentimental jewelry, and Australia's fields, opened in the late 1800s, have supplied most of the world's fine opal ever since.

Where does opal come from?

Precious opal is hydrated silica, formed where silica-rich water settled into cracks and voids and slowly dried. Australia produces the large majority of the world's supply, with Ethiopia, Mexico and Brazil the other sources people usually mean. Ours is Australian opal, bought as rough rather than cut cabochons. Our opal rough is sorted from what the cutting trade sets aside, crystals too small, too included or too irregular to facet, and from vintage lots bought out of old collections. The stone was already out of the ground before we found it; we give it a setting instead of a drawer.

Is raw opal good for everyday wear?

Opal is softer than quartz and holds a little water, so keep it dry, take rings off before dishes, gardening and the gym, and store pieces apart so harder stones do not scratch them. A soft cloth is all the cleaning they need.

A few of the moon, star and butterfly shapes use Kyocera lab-created opal, cut to a clean outline for designs that need a repeatable shape; every product page says which.

Looking for more? Browse October birthstone jewelry, raw stone rings, opal and gemstone necklaces, tourmaline, October's second stone. Shoppers here most often start with Raw Australian Opal Ring and Raw Australian Opal Necklace.