Colors in Opals
The Unique Spectrum of Opal Colors
Opals can contain every color of the rainbow within them. Blue, Green, Purple, Pink, Yellow, Red, Orange, and everything else. Sometimes individually, with just a few, and sometimes with all colors within the one-cut opal. This array of colors is one of the main reasons why every single opal is unique.
Formation of Opal Colors
Colors have formed over millions of years within opal silica spheres. These are formed the same way a rainbow is formed by light refraction; only with opal are the colors trapped within the silica spheres forever. They are solid rainbows that never disappear!
Value Determination: Significance of Opal Colors
An opal color, or array of colors, is a substantial contributing factor in determining the value of an opal. Traditionally, red is the most valuable color in opals because it is the rarest of colors.
Rarity of Red: Understanding Opal’s Most Valuable Color
You can watch the video here that explains why this is. Red opals can demand a much higher price tag than other colors in the market, and often, a cutter or miner will get very excited when they expose any red color while working.
Commonality of Blue in Opals
Blue is often the most common color to find when opal mining. For some reason, this is especially the case with boulder opals. Blue is the most common color in boulder opals, which is very evident when you go to a place like Winton for their annual opal show; you will see a lot of lower-grade blue boulder opals for sale.
Why is blue the most common color? This is because blue is at the other end of the color spectrum to red. Please watch the video to understand why this is! That being said, a specific type of royal blue is rare and second-rare in color than red. These opals can also demand a high price in the market.
Rare and Unique Color Combinations in Opals
Other rare colors in opals are metallic neon colors and unique combinations of colors. It can be determined if a color is rare just by observing an opal compared to other opals in the market. When you work with opals a lot, you will begin to understand and identify quickly what a unique, rare colored/patterned opal looks like.
The brightness of an opals colors is also very important in its value. There are many instances where you can find red in an opal, however its brightness is very low, so the value will still remain low. Rarer colors need to be discovered with good brightness in them to make an opals value high. Without good brightness, the colors contributing factor to value becomes somewhat irrelevant.
This is also the case with patterns. Unique, rare patterns are important in determining an opals value, however it is very important that these patterns also include an array of bright colors. Especially rarer colors are important. A bright red harlequin pattern will be more valuable than a mediocre brightness blue and green harlequin pattern. Brightness, Pattern and Color needs to work simultaneously to contribute to the value of an opal.