Ethiopian Opals Grading Chart

Opal Charts on Opal Auctions

Ethiopian Opal Chart

ETHIOPIAN WELO OPAL HONEYCOMB PATTERN

One the most expensive Ethiopian Opal sale was this Gem 23 carats rare Honey comb pattern Ethiopian opal sold for $35,000 by Opalethiopia.

This opal has most spectacular Honey comb pattern for an Ethiopian Opal

One of the most popular patterns in Ethiopian opals, it is a naturally formed potch line web inclusions know as an Orderly Geometrical Spatial Arrangement Of Atoms and make crystalline honey comb shape which is also so rare in any other type of opals.

These honey comb shapes are also know on occasions to have brighter or different colour in crystalline formation, this is also a rare occurrence in nature.

This is known as Bravais Lattice in that the opal formation is made up of periodic arrangements, knows as honey comb, consequently the pattern is the same when viewed from any of the lattice points so we can appreciate how rare this pattern is in Ethiopian crystal opals.

ETHIOPIAN WELO PATCHWORK HARLEQUIN PATTERN

Harlequin is regarded as the rarest pattern in the opal industry.

Many opal miners will never find one of these patterns in their lifetime work.

Black opals are regarded as the most expensive and rarest harlequin pattern opals.

Ethiopian opals have a patchwork harlequin pattern.

True harlequin pattern is a mosaic broad pattern, angular close set of colours.

Floral patterns are sometimes called floral harlequin but Welo Floral or Welo patchwork would be the correct naming for these gem Ethiopian floral pattern opals

ETHIOPIAN WELO FACTED CRYSTAL OPAL

Crystal Ethiopian opal is ideal for faceting due to natural formation of silica spheres and thickness it can be faceted in broad pattern cutting to display hues of brilliant diffracted colours.

Due to broad texture pattern close cut facets are not required for light reflection so broad flash pattern is best pattern for facet cuts.

In most gemstones the finer the faceted cut the brighter the gemstone but this is not the case with Ethiopian opal as very light reflection is required to display brilliant interlaying flashes.

COLOUR HUES OF ETHIOPAN WELO OPALS

The translucent internal fire hues of these Ethiopian opals are not hidden deep with in the opal but has properties that make fire hues 3D, this 3 dimensional colour aspect is rare in most opals.

Many Australian black opals have hidden colour spectrum patterns deep with in the opal so a blue opal can have hidden translucent colour bars with violet or purple hues that cannot be directly seen by naked eye., but these Ethiopian opals have vivid translucent colour bars and pattern that are strikingly bright and visible with naked eye.

Ethiopian Welo opal is good for first time or professional opal cutters to cut and polish or facet. Due to opals intense density and thick colour bars it is easier to polish than thin bar black opals or boulder opals.

Welo rough can be purchased from Ethiopian opal wholesalers for only $1.00 per gram.

Welo opal is only recently mined but many opal cutters and Ethiopian jewelry manufactures have made rings and pendants .wello opal is now in The Smithsonian Museum of natural history

Ethiopian Opals are valued for their bright flashes of fire colour. Ethiopian Opals are nobby-formed rather than seam-formed and have characteristically brown or dark-nodule potch. These opals are not considered as structurally sound as Australian opals but have incredible fire colours and patterns, but their vivid green and red flashes are prized by collectors.Ethiopian opals have been mined in Mezezo and the new opal field discovered at Gondar is producing top pattern opal crystal.

Ethiopian Welo opal jewelry

This newly discovered Ethiopian opal field has been largely embraced by the opal community as an opal field which is strong and complimentary to other opal fields in the world.

Ethiopian opal manufactures and jewelry wholesaler s are now making Ethiopian welo opal jewelry

Most welo opals are made in sterling silver 925 silver mounts or silver wire wrap and is an ideal opal to bezel set. The opal fire patterns are stunning and as strong as fire colours on the Ethiopian Opals Grading Chart

The advantage that this welo Ethiopian opal has over other fields is that at present there is a steady supply of rough and this Ethiopian rough can be cut to make matching sets of earring, pendants and rings.

Australia opal fields find this so hard matching opal jewelry sets except for opal doublets and triplets that are easy to match

But solid matching opals are hard to find so this is the big advantage to jewelry designers to create jewelry designs using matching opals.

Due to the structure of welo opal it is relatively easy to find a matching opal to make earrings and or a pendant.

Cabochon or domed structure does make the opal pattern more spectacular and rolling patterns are more common in this welo opal and is pleasing to the view.

Opal bracelets made with Welo opal are available and opals look so pleasing .In the early 1900 s many British opal designers made creative opal bracelets and opal necklaces and even today these fetch high prices in antique auctions. And only now can designers create these styles of matching rows of welo opals in pendants or bracelets.

TREATED ETHIOPIAN BLACK OPAL

I was at the recent Bangkok gem show where I saw large amounts of Ethiopian black

opal being sold with gem reports saying its natural. New findings have shown that most,

if not all, of the "black" Ethiopian opal now seen in the market is not what it appears to be!

It is either treated by innovative new "smoking" techniques to obtain it's black-opal appearance.

As this opal is hydrophane it seems to respond to smoking well.

Smoking techniques are not new where opal is concerned, but what is now being used on the

Ethiopian opal introduces a new twist to the old smoking method, which is why the treatment was

missed by respected gem-testing laboratories.

The old technique was used on low quality opal, such as Mexican hydrophane material,

to darken the colour of the base material, which causes — by contrast —

a more fiery play of colour. It was done simply by wrapping the opal tightly in brown paper,

placing it in a covered container, heating over medium heat until the paper is completely charred,

then cooling and washing it. The result was a much prettier opal!

This "old" technique (or similar approaches, all of which are still used today) affects only

the surface and is easy to detect simply by applying a little saliva to the surface of the stone:

if the fiery play of color is visibly reduced when wet but then returns to its more fiery character

when dry, you know it is "smoked."

When the newly smoked Ethiopian material was cut open, however, it was discovered that

the darkening effect penetrated the entire stone, and so normal, routine testing techniques used

for opal didn't indicate smoking, or dyeing, or any other treatment. Yet once the researchers

probed deeper in studying this new "suspect" material, and applied more sophisticated

techniques not routinely used for opal, the existence of carbon (from the blackening/smoking

technique used) was immediately detected. Under a loop you can see small carbon spots inside

and there is usually surface pitting on the surface.

. There is a lot of brown dark material from the shewa field which shouldn’t been confused

with this smoked black material. I have seen some natural wello which is dark based but not

black. The natural stones i have seen would rank a N3-4 on the body tone chart .There is a market

for this material but it should be disclosed as treated. If you see black wello opal you should

be cautious and ask questions and also check the sellers return policy just in case. If you

do want to check your stones send it to a lab and ask for a carbon test.

paul sedawie

APresident australian opal society

8/11/2011