Opal Lexicon

Opal patterns: harlequin, pinfire, rolling flash

An opal’s pattern, from pinfire through rolling flash to harlequin, is the third great price driver after brightness and body tone. The article shows twelve patterns with pictures and a price facto...

Synthetic opal: how to spot it, and its value

Synthetic opal consists of the same silica spheres as a natural opal, but grows in about a year in the laboratory. How you recognise it for sure under the loupe, what it is worth, how it must be la...

Opalite: Glass, Not Opal. How to Spot It

Opalite is man-made glass with a milky blue shimmer, and it's often sold as opal at flea markets and on online marketplaces. This article shows the features that give it away, clears up the confusi...

Matrix Opal: When the Fire Stays in the Rock

Genuine opal material sits finely spread through the host rock. What sets matrix opal apart from boulder opal, what the blackening means and what it is worth.

Which Opal Suits You? Four Decisions to Your Stone

Metal, piece of jewelry, shape and color world: four decisions and you land on a handful of pieces instead of the whole range.

Opal or Moonstone? How to Tell Them Apart

Both shimmer, both feel mysterious, and yet they aren't related. Moonstone shows a single bluish shimmer, opal shows many colors at once. Here's how to tell them apart.

Opal Colors: What Each Color Means and Costs

An opal carries no color inside it, it creates it from light. Which colors exist, which are rare and what each one costs.

Opal Doublet and Triplet: Structure and Value

An opal doublet and an opal triplet bring genuine play of color to your skin without you paying the price of a solid opal.

Crystal Opal: Fire That Rises from the Depths

Crystal opal is a transparent to translucent precious opal whose play of color seems to glow from deep within the stone.

White Opal: The Bright Classic

White opal is often underestimated, yet the light stone holds a play of color that keeps up with costlier relatives, if you know what to look for.

Boulder Opal: Play of Color on Ironstone

Boulder opal is nature itself: because it stays inseparable from its host rock, every stone is a small landscape, every vein and every crack tells...

Mexican Fire Opal: Flame in Orange and Red

Fire opal is the outlier among opals: instead of shimmering milky, it glows clear and warm like a sunset held still.