Ethiopian Wollo Opal

[Aoife]

jstarfireb, did you have a thread on it? I'm sorry, I can't recall.

Nope, in general I haven't started threads on my purchases because most of them are tiny and modest. I have posted a pic here and there...it's a 4mm faceted opal from The Gem Trader with orange body color and great play of color.



MTG has a similarly sized and faceted opal in a pendant with her opposed bar tourmaline, but hers is white and mine is orange.

That is really beautiful!
The colors are amazing, and I love the look of faceted opal. You should start a thread and tell us your plans. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to hear about it.

 

[Lovinggems]

I love the colour flashes, Sally is going to turn thi beauty into a wonderful piece of jewellery.

 

[gsellis]

I finally took a picture of one of the one's I have. It is a Christmas present for one of the family (and I need to get my ... tush in gear to finish... getting down to 1 month away!)

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Wow George Ellis, that is STUNNING!

When I emailed Sally to discuss setting my opal, I asked if her jewelers were experienced and comfortable with opals. She said they have worked with the material before, and sent me these photos of a lotus with a Welo opal. How lovely!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Here's my 4mm faceted ethiopian opal, it's part of a pendant along with an opposed bar tourmaline.




The rest of the pendant photos are here (scroll to the middle)
https://www.pricescope.com/communit...g-tourm-pendant-mint-garnets-pictures.152231/

 

[jstarfireb]

jstarfireb, did you have a thread on it? I'm sorry, I can't recall.

Nope, in general I haven't started threads on my purchases because most of them are tiny and modest. I have posted a pic here and there...it's a 4mm faceted opal from The Gem Trader with orange body color and great play of color.



MTG has a similarly sized and faceted opal in a pendant with her opposed bar tourmaline, but hers is white and mine is orange.

That is really beautiful!
The colors are amazing, and I love the look of faceted opal. You should start a thread and tell us your plans. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to hear about it.

Thanks! I put it in my projects thread (which I haven't kept up with updating as I noticed people had stopped replying).
http://www.pricescope.com/forum/col...ecent-colored-stone-projects-t126228-150.html

Here's a pic of it in the finished pendant:

 

[iLander]

jstarfireb, did you have a thread on it? I'm sorry, I can't recall.

Nope, in general I haven't started threads on my purchases because most of them are tiny and modest. I have posted a pic here and there...it's a 4mm faceted opal from The Gem Trader with orange body color and great play of color.



MTG has a similarly sized and faceted opal in a pendant with her opposed bar tourmaline, but hers is white and mine is orange.

That is really beautiful!
The colors are amazing, and I love the look of faceted opal. You should start a thread and tell us your plans. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to hear about it.

Thanks! I put it in my projects thread (which I haven't kept up with updating as I noticed people had stopped replying).
http://www.pricescope.com/forum/col...ecent-colored-stone-projects-t126228-150.html

Here's a pic of it in the finished pendant:

LOVELY! Very pretty with the orange!

Don't be offended if we stop replying, we all just generally expect a new thread for each project. . .

So, NEW THREAD! NEW THREAD! NEW THREAD!

 

[iLander]

LD, I think all of this type Welo is hydrophane.

Two cautions if you get one (and I am NOT discouraging you... I have about 8 pieces to cut - Christmas is going to be good this year ).

1) Like all opal, it is soft. Rings and bracelets are going to be very rough on it. While faceting it, I know I will have to redo something because a little bit of the pumice attached to the rough always shows up and scratches it.

2) It will soak up water and change color in a heartbeat. Don't bath, wash the dishes, or anything else with frequent submerging unless you are ready for the consequences. First, it will go an opaque white, then, it will start getting clear on the edges and that will progress to the center. It will be clear and the color will almost entirely disappear. After it is out of the water, it will go opaque again in about 30 minutes. It will stay that way for days. Do NOT try to speed up the drying! After about 2 weeks, it will be like the pictures above again.

No heat, no ultrasound, no soaking in cleaners. WD-40 sucks the water out of it and it will look kind of homely (it is a diamond cutting thing). Acetone makes it turn yellowish (used to remove superglue from dopping it). I soaked it in water for 8 hours and 2 weeks later, it is looking normal (stunning is normal).

So far, I have not found anyone who has worked with it that says it is unstable. If it is cracked when you start and you don't chase it out, it will continue to crack based on a sample of 1. Expect the price to go up. Everyone assumed that it was too good to be true.

I have one of these opals. So, let me get this straight: if I put water on it, it will change color?

I want to try it, will it damage the stone in some way?

 

[Largosmom]

i wet all of my Welo rough and it dried back out in a few hours to a few days. It will not hurt the stone and is kind of cool to try.

I cab'd a couple of them last weekend and am going to do some more tomorrow. One came out pretty nice, the other doesn't have as much fire. I need to do a bit of cleanup on the original two, so they will get a bit wet when I do that, so I'll wait to post pictures till they dry out again.

Laura

 

[Largosmom]

Here are the two opals and a garnet. All three need a bit more work, but you can see some of the fire in the one nicer opal. I'm going to try flattening the oval to see if there is a better layer of fire in it that isn't showing. The garnet is "grape" garnet that was given to me as rough. I am going to try and thin it out some to see if the color lightens up some. It is pretty dark.

The teardrop opal is even more firey now. Most of the hydrophane will lose it's fire or lessen it when wet. But, it comes back just fine.

Laura

 

[rodvan77]

im just learning how to cut Ethiopian hydrophane Opals, i dont have all the pro gear to do it so i preform with my dremel (rotery tool) and fine tune and polish with home made laps by hand (made from trimite and cd's) so far i have not had a single stone crack or break. i am absolutly mesmerised by these, i spend hours looking at them and they are always changing. i am in love with these opals. so far i have only had some small peices to work with (less then 5 ct) but i am expecting my first order of rough material in within a week or so. i would love some tips or tricks to cutting, polishing and pricing them....

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Most of us around here are consumers, not cutters, and not the best people to give technical advice. However, if you do a quick google search, you will find some great Gemology online forums.