EthiopianOpals.com

After viewing the videos on this site I'm more convinced it is an Ethiopian Welo opal.

EthiopianOpals.com web site

In particular it is a two tone yellow and clear base. It has about 1/4-1/3 that is the yellow base and the rest is more milky white and clear. You can see this in the far right picture in the title bar.

One of the videos shows the two tone. Another shows a "Rare Yellow base crystal". I was wondering about this yellow portion of mine and this explains it.

There is also this quote on the web site:
"The color play is face up and in a lot of cases, as bright in artificial indoor light as it is in direct sunlight. This opal just loves any light source. This is hydrophane opal which when soaked in water allows the base color to clear up...sometimes highlighting the play-of-color, sometimes making it vanish."

This has certainly been my experience. Indoor light is stunning. Mine seems to clear up the base color when wet and highlight the play of color. Also the ribbon pattern shows through right to the top surface very clearly after it has been wet.

Night pictures

These pictures were taken indoors at night. Keep in mind this is just a run of the mill maybe 10 yr old digital camera. No special lighting or camera to capture the brilliance. I don't think the videos do it justice because I have trouble getting it to focus that close up.  Even so, what the camera is capturing is fantastic but not as spectacular as it is in person. For comparison here is a link to some professional pictures.

My amateur photos below:

Video of the opal at night on white and black backgrounds.

More pictures in the daylight

These pictures were all taken in the daylight.

A video showing the ribbon pattern

This video was too large to upload. It shows the ribbon pattern underneath and then the top.

A video that shows the ribbon pattern

I hope this video helps someone else evaluate their opal.

If anyone knows opals and has an opinion regarding this one please post a comment with your thoughts.

Is this opal real?

After I got the opal home and had run it under water it was really flashing and had become fairly translucent. I started to wonder if this was a real opal. I did much checking on-line and mostly found info that said maybe this wasn't real because the colors and lines that you could see from the bottom were too uniform and dense. However on the flip side my opal is not completely symmetric as an oval and the bottom is not flat, nor the dome perfect, indicating possibly real. There also appears to be a dark grain of stone or sand that you can only see in the photos. This would also indicate real.

I eventually ran across the post by Chuck Starbird who cuts and polishes Welo opals.
Post that includes info by Chuck Starbird
Thank you Chuck for sharing your pictures!

I saw the strong ribbon pattern in his opals which has the colors all packed in together. Just like mine. Phew! I think it is real. But it seems to be ever changing. In fact if I didn't have it in my possession the entire time I would think it was a different stone. From what I've read the Welo opals take on water when wet which changes their optical properties. As they dry out it changes them back (most of the time).

Video of the top of the opal

Attended Gem and Mineral Show

After many years of not going I recently attended a Gem and Mineral Show in Denver Colorado. I was quite taken by the new Welo opals. The ones I saw were fairly translucent and had interesting watery colors. But I didn't like the ring or pendant settings and they were very pricey. At the last minute I decided to look at loose stones. Out of a tray of mostly white, larger opals I selected the 14x10mm fairly oval opal below. Because of the bargaining process I forgot to ask where the opal was mined.

Originally the opal was milky white with flashes of brilliant color. Once I got outside and saw the opal in sunlight I saw a strong ribbon pattern on the flatter underside.

Picture taken in my house, not in sunlight but exposed to a window.

Picture taken outside in direct sun of the domed top.

Back side of opal with ribbon pattern showing.

All of the above pictures were taken after having put the opal under running water. It seemed to get more translucent and the ribbon pattern showed through from the top.