I have a commission for a “grandmother’s” bracelet that will contain
17 natural gemstones when completed, two of which will represent
October birthdays. I have some precious opal in a little corked
bottle full of water which I got on a trip to Mexico years ago - but
most are very plain fire opals, or little pieces of opal embedded in
small stones, or sad milky little cabs. None of it is really of the
quality I’d prefer for this piece (it was more of a souvenir
purchase at the time). But I have several different shapes, sizes and
quality of pink opal beads in my stone drawers and was wondering if
pink Peruvian opal would apply for this purpose? I also have some
small pink tourmaline beads, which is the alternative "modern"
birthstone for this month; but the various sizes of the pink opal I
have are more in keeping with the design I’ve been working on.
I’d like to ask the customer what she thinks, but before I do, I’d
like to know what you all think. My Google surfing hasn’t turned up
any site that disputes that Peruvian Opal is, in fact, an opal; but
I’d like to be able to present a choice to the customer with a little
more clarity. My copy of Gemstones of the World has a couple pages on
opals… precious opals, fire opals and common opals… but nowhere
does it mention the Peruvian variety. Has anyone ever used a Peruvian
opal to represent an October birthday??
This is a bracelet that will probably run around $200 or more once
it’s finished. I don’t mind being… unorthodox… in the least; but I
would prefer to avoid a birthstone “faux pas” if I can.
Many thanks for any comments, opinions, and/or suggestions : )
There Is More Than One Way to Choose A Birthstone
By Sandra I. Smith
“My birthstone is emerald,” a potential customer recently told me.
“But I don’t like green,” she continued, “so I never buy gemstones.”
Do we, and our customers, have choices when it comes to selecting a
birthstone? What can we do when we don’t like or can’t afford the
gemstone assigned to our month of birth? What should we suggest to
our customers when they ask for help in selecting the “right”
birthstone?
A standard list of acceptable birthstones is used today, but those
gemstones were arbitrarily selected many years ago. I did some
research and learned that there is more than one way to choose a
birthstone…
Pink Peruvian opal, and peruvain opal in general are opals, they are
considered ‘common opal’ because they do not have fire, however, the
blue peruvian opal is anything but common these days and is in fact,
getting more expensive for the ‘real stuff’. A lot of the blue opal
on the market is dyed, some of it not even opal…so beware if it’s
too cheap! I am not sure if the pink is getting any more rare, though
I’ve seen people trying to raise prices for it on ebay. This may be a
side effect of the blue material becoming more expensive/rare…ie.
people thinking ‘peruvian opal’ is expensive without checking if it’s
pink, blue or both that is expensive/rare. My understanding with the
blue opal is that 1. the original find is getting worked out, and
since it’s colored by copper, the copper in the mines has been
prioritized for mining because of metals prices. I don’t know what
gives the pink opal it’s color.
The possible angle you could use for using pink peruvian opal for an
october birth stone would be that October is either pink tourmaline
or opal…thus you could combine the pink with opal!
We are miners and cutters of peruvian blue opal and we also cut pink
opal for 20 years at our facility in Lima Peru. We also have new
discoverys of some of the best blue chalcedony, blue aragonite
looking like larimar and a raare stone as well as very good green
varascite.
Peruvian pink opal is the best pink opal currently in the market
Some pink opal comes from Mexico. and there is also a ice cream
pinkish opal of mixed varigation from the United States. Peruvian
pink opal is colored by a clay and a mineral called petagorscite.
See Journal of Gemology 2002 “Gemstones of Peru” DR Hyrsl and DR
Alfredo Petrov As tested pink opal has a hardness of 6 making it the
hardest opal in the world. This is due to the amounts of silica in
the opal. It also takes a very good polish and is a very surable
stone for opal.
Peruvian pink opal is sold according to quality. There is mine run
materials which are very very low grade washed out color with white
and brown and very little color in it. There is second and third
grade materiasl that are often color striated- varigated color
materials suitable for beads and also some cabs as well., carving,
etc First quality pink opal has uniform color and good color with
little matrix. Currently top color pink uniform color pink opal in
Peru is very limited in supply and costs per kilo are raising rapidly
as supply deminishes.
If you have further questions please contact Lee Horowitz of Peru
Blue Opal Ltd at [lshorowitz at yahoo dot com] or also in Lima Peru
Marcel Ryzenberg at mryzenberg@yahoo.com We can supply rough or cut
materials in cabs, beads, bead pendants and in.925 sterling silver in
spanish-peruviuan designs or your own design.
Peruvian blue opal is very scarce in due to the facts that there is a
t best only 20 grams if that from anyone mine in Peru of premium
materials This is put into cabochons by us and also in superior
There are no new premium nor superior color bead strands produced in
Peru anymore. due to the fact that to make beads one only gets 10%
return and with facated beads such can be less per kilo. Thus any
prices for premium beads and superior is warranted by scarcity of
materials Any of these materials go into cabochons of very good
quality. Blue opal was named “chrysopal” when we sold rough in bulk
quantitiy many years ago to Germany, etc This was named chryscolla
colored opal. It is also called carribean blue opla orblue-green opal
due to its many colors and as well andean opal. Scarcity also comes
from the facts in Peru that many mines have little left in them as
they go back further and further into the veins and in addition most
miners are not mining it or chryscolla or gem silica chryscolla or
opaline due to the fact copper ore in bulk tonnages are much cheaper
to mine in terms of labor costs in Peru and they can extract mass
tonnages due to market prices We have for many years allertedthe
public to the many scams in blue opal that is dyed mine run, glass
with slag, victoris stone and other simulants and synthetics. We
lecture to many GIA alumni socities and Gem and Lapidary societys on
this and also on the stabilizing of chrysocolla nd turquise as well
and also the dying of it and other stones to resemble such… We do
have superior rough blue opal in limited amounts which does conatin
some premium materials and we stillmaintain stocks of premium blue
opal beads and pink opal beads and cabs, and.925 sterling which were
featured at the former National Bead Museum last year in Washington
DC.
Prices for pink opal rough ( colored by peitgorscite the clay
surrounding the pink opal) in top uniform deep bright pink has gone
way up in price in rough from Ica, Peru This is due to the scarcity
and also the fact that some dying of low garde mine run materiasl is
occuring as well as synthetics and glass of high color and
uniformity are being sold now as premium pink opal
If you requise further on blue or pink opal you may
contact Lee Horowitz. at [shorowitz at yahoo dot com] or Marcel
Ryzenberg in Lima Peru at : [mryzenberg at yahoo dot com] We will be
pleased to talk with you. abouyt these and any peruvian gemstones as
well.
…I tried to google “peitgorscite” but found now results. What is
the chemical/mineral in the surrounding clay which actually gives
Pink Opal the pink color?
The name of the mineral that colors the pink peruvian opal was
spelled wrong It is “polygorskite” You can see it at http://www.mindat.org/min-3072.html … The article “Gemstones of
Peru” was written in 2002 by Dr. Alfredo Petrovand DR Hyrsl in the
Jounral of Gemology which is the formost official journal on
gemology Both our rough and cut blue opal we mine and cut as well as
pink opal, chrysocolla, opaline, gem sislica chryscolla and other
peruvian gemstones were featured in such study. Dr Petrov is on the
mindat board of directors and is a well known mineralologist and
gemologist.
If you need further please feel free to contact offline.
We hope this helps.
Lee Horowitz
Peru Blue Opal Ltd