Pink Opal Crystal Bracelet

Opal is hydrated silica - SiO₂ with water held in its structure, sometimes several percent by weight. Pink opal is a common opal: it has no play-of-colour, none of the flashing fire of precious opal. Its beauty is the body colour - an even, soft pink - not the rainbow.

The pink is thought to come from traces of organic compounds within the silica. The stone is opaque to translucent, Mohs 5.5–6.5, and ranges from pale blush to a deep rose sometimes crossed by white or brown veining.

Because opal holds water, it is more sensitive than quartz to heat and to drying out - the care below keeps it from crazing, the fine surface cracking that dehydration can bring.

Asked often

Why is there no rainbow flash like other opals?
Pink opal is common opal - it has no play of color by nature. The appeal is the soft, even pink of the body itself, not the fire of precious opal.

Is the pink natural?
Yes. The colour is thought to come from natural organic traces in the silica. Good Andean pink opal is undyed; the white or brown veining is the stone’s own.

Is it fragile?
It is softer than quartz and, because opal holds water, more sensitive to heat and dryness. Treated gently it lasts; left in sun or heat it can craze, so it asks a little care.

How do I care for it?
Wipe with a soft, barely damp cloth. Keep it from heat, strong sun, scent, and prolonged dryness. Keep the cord dry and spare the beads knocks.

1. Worn on either wrist, over the hand, on a durable elastic cord.
2. Wipe with a soft, barely damp cloth.
3. Keep it from heat, strong sun, and prolonged dryness - opal holds water, and drying can craze it.
4. Softer than quartz - spare the beads hard knocks.

Pink opal asks slightly more attention than the quartzes - shade, gentleness, and away from heat. That care suits a stone that still holds water inside it.

Soft, barely damp cloth. Keep from heat, sun, scent, and dryness. Remove before swimming and bathing.

• Stone: Pink opal · common opal
• Composition: SiO₂·nH₂O · hydrated silica
• Character: Opaque to translucent · soft pink · no play-of-colour
• Hardness: Mohs 5.5–6.5
• Treatment: None · undyed
• Band: Durable elastic cord
• Origin: Peru
• Care: Barely damp cloth · keep from heat, sun, and dryness

Pink opal is mined chiefly in the Andes of Peru, where the peoples of the pre-Columbian Andes worked it into beads and small ornaments long before the stone reached wider trade. It has been the quiet Andean cousin of the famous fire opals of Australia and Mexico - prized for colour rather than flash.

Across the cultures that carried it, the soft pink was held a gentle, steadying stone - named here as what people believed. The body colour is the whole of it; what that quiet pink comes to mean is the wearer’s to decide.