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Pear CutThe October Birthstone: A Complete Guide to Opal and Tourmaline
The Opal
Opals are the traditional, original birthstone for the month of October and have been loved and admired through history. Some cultures believed they had supernatural powers, while others told legends of how opals fell from the heavens in flashes of lightning.
The displays of rainbow coloured flashes in opals are known as "play-of-colour", and as early as 75AD the Roman scholar Pliny recorded:
"Some opali carry such a play within them that they equal the deepest and richest colours of painters. Others simulate the flaming fire of burning sulphur and even the bright blaze of burning oil."
Opals have had their share of challenges too, following the publication of Sir Walter Scott's novel Anne of Geierstein, where a character is struck by bad luck because of an opal she wears. This gave opals a reputation for bad luck until Queen Victoria helped bring them back into fashion by wearing them and giving them away as gifts.
The discovery of opal fields in Australia in the 19th century gave another boost to the popularity of opals and cemented Australia as the global leader in opal production.
Opals are also known as the "Queen of Gems" with their ability to display all the colours of the rainbow in a single stone.
Different Types of Opals
Opals can be divided into common and precious opals; precious opals show iridescent play-of-colour, a characteristic common opals do not possess. There are also many different varietis of opals, and we will explore a selection below:
How to Care For Your Opals
Opals can be cleaned with a little mild soap, lukewarm water and a very soft toothbrush.
Doublets and triplets, which consist of multiple layers, should not be soaked or immersed in water, as the various layers can be damaged. They can however be wiped with a soft, damp cloth and mild soap.
Opals must never be put in an ultrasonic cleaner, as the vibrations may cause cracks the stone. In doublets and triplets water may infiltrate the layers and create a grey appearance.
After years of wear you may wish to bring your opal to an opal cutter for polishing, to remove dullness and scratches and make it shiny.
The Tourmaline
The history of the tourmaline is as colourful as the spectacular range of colours of this stone! Back in the 1500s a Spanish conquistador found a green tourmaline in Brazil and mistook it for an emerald. It took 300 years for this mistake to be cleared up and the tourmaline was finally recognised as a distinct mineral species in the 1800s.
Tourmalines had been mistaken for many other different stones through times; the pink and red varieties were for example frequently mistaken for rubies. 'Caesar’s Ruby' in the Russian crown jewels turned out to be a rubellite tourmaline and not a ruby at all - having been traded among European royalty from the late 16th century!
Cultures all over the world have celebrated the tourmaline and assigned it various properties. The ancient Egyptians treasured tourmalines and wore them as protective talismans. They also believed that tourmalines had travelled up to the earth's surface through a rainbow, thereby getting its wide array of colours.
Different Types of Tourmalines
There are many popular varieties of tourmalines and below we will look closer at a selection:
How to Care for Your Tourmaline
Tourmaline ranks 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale and is considered strong enough for everyday wear. However, a protective setting is recommended to protect it from sharp impacts.
Tourmaline jewellery is best cleaned with warm, soapy water and a soft toothbrush. Make sure to rinse it well with water and drying with a soft, lint free cloth to avoid watermarks on the surface. We do not recommend using ultrasonic as these may damage the stone.