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Precious opal may seem to contain every color in the rainbow, depending on which angle you look at it. This color-changing phenomenon, known as iridescence or color play, has captivated imaginations for centuries. Thanks to its flashing colors,...
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Precious opal may seem to contain every color in the rainbow, depending on which angle you look at it. This color-changing phenomenon, known as iridescence or color play, has captivated imaginations for centuries. Thanks to its flashing colors, often resembling the flecks in irises, it has been thought to bring good luck and heal to eye ailments. Other cultures associate it with bad luck and the evil eye. Not surprisingly, perhaps, it’s been employed in Rorschach-type tests in psychology. Opal, made of hydrated or hardened silica gel, is 5 to 30 percent water, which means the stone may eventually dry out, causing it to lose its iridescence and crack. Iridescence is created by the structure of the stone, wherein tiny, tightly packed silica spheres diffract light. The bigger and more orderly these spheres, the more color the opal appears to contain. An amorphous stone, opal is formed in the cavities of sedimentary rocks such as ironstone and sandstone. It also creates veins in igneous rocks, is found in stalagmites or stalactites in caves, and works as a petrifying agent, replacing wood, shell, and bones in fossils. Before the 19th century, Czechoslovakia was the primary source of precious opal, but these days it’s Australia. Opal is also mined in Brazil, Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Russia, southern Africa, and in Nevada and Idaho in the United States. Being a soft, fragile stone, opal is easy to damage and difficult to work with. Nonetheless, jewelers find its enchanting color difficult to resist. Opal is often cut into cabochons with free-form shapes that best show off the color play within. These unique shapes inspire much creativity in the jewelry design for necklaces, rings, and bracelets. Opal may be opaque to translucent to transparent. It comes in a wide range of base colors, and generally has a vitreous luster. There are both precious and non-precious types of opal. Perhaps the most well-known of the precious is called...
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All About Jewels Dictionary
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