Dear Friends,
I have invested in beautiful A-grade Wello Ethiopian Opals finely cut.
I got a very good lot and I think I was very lucky…I went for the expensive dealer rather than the cheap one.
I am sharing my first selected stone on youtube…and I am asking you guys as “friendly Quizz” what is the value of this gemstone.
Cheers
Guys
I’m selling these for $28ct USD, 14X10mm
I already creamed the best 20% from it, so I hope that you didn’t pay too much more than that?
Is it the price for the lot of for single one?
It say’s $28 per carat, a nice price looking at those.
Agree that is a nice price…
It’s for the lot, wholesale is a little bit cheaper if you are reselling.
I’m leaving in a few minutes until Monday, but if you are interested, you can email me at david@skyjems.ca and I’ll get back to you.
I admit to not knowing a lot about Ethiopian opals, and it’s difficult to tell from the video, but it doesn’t look like the polish is up to snuff. Compared to those shown from Skygems, it looks dull. If it was an Australian opal I would think it no better than C-grade as there’s large areas of no color when viewed from some directions. What was know as not “true”. But not sure how Ethiopian is rated.
Hi Joel,
Thank you for your comment. I actually disagree with you.
These are grade A crystal Opals…it all depends on the light you are using.
Look at this picture of the stones from the same lot I have…i guess they now look pretty much like those of Skyjems…
I’ll appreciate your comments…
Than you
Laurent B
Those appear to be better than the single original one, but even they look like the final polish isn’t very good. It looks like they were finished with 14k diamond instead of cerium. Compare Skygems polish.
My comments about true still hold. Look at this Lightning Ridge black opal. There’s no place where color is extinguished (small black spot on bottom is my poor photo technique).
Yes you are right about the colour and the directionality of the particular case of the first opal I showed, but this is a crystal opal, completely transparent and translucid, and the inner silica planar structure that reflects the light at various wavelengths can be visible by its refection. This gives you an effect similar to a “directional” reflections. But these are not fake, with pieces of metal inside, if that is what you meant by “not true”
When the stone has a deeper body colour (like white, pink, grey…) the reflections of light through the inner silica structure is richer, multiple orientations are mixed, resulting undirectional light reflections.
Also, I don’t think you can compare a black australian Opal with a crystal Ethiopian Opal. Of course, the former is much more valuable. In my opinion you can only grade opals within their families, a black opal from ethiopia is much cheaper than one from Australia, but it doesn’t mean it is a low grade, it could be a grad A fine black Ethiopian opal.
Please correct me if I am wrong…
Cheers
LaurentB
True is an old opal term that means that no matter how you move the stone around, no part is without color. It has nothing to do with simulated stones. I agree that you cannot compare a crystal Ethiopian opal with a Lightning Ridge black, but the purpose was only to illustrate what “true” means.
I have over 40 years experience with cutting Australian opal, but little familiarity with Ethiopian opal thus have no way of determining relative values. However, one comparison can be made between any set of opals: What percent of the face shows color? Potch is obviously zero and the Butterfly stone (Butterfly Stone / The Red Admiral | Famous Opals – Macs Opals) is 100%. Given the same colors, the higher the percent, the more valuable the stone. One that is true will show more colors in every direction.
So, I can’t say if your stones are fine, extra fine or whatever because of a lack of familiarity in Ethiopian opal grading on my part.
I still believe that your stones are not well polished because they do not reflect the lighting as does Skygems’ and as such it’s a disservice to their beauty. Either that or your lighting is little better than mine and you’ve got fingerprints all over them.
Thank you so much for your comments.
I do value your experience. I apologize for the confusion about the term “true opal”.
I understand that true opals are the most valuable of course, and those whith patterns even more.
Surely you are right about the light, and the quality of the pictures do not do justice to the beauty of these opals, which appear so much better to the naked eye. These photos have been taken with my phone and the lighting has not been optimzed at all,…without mentioning the that fact that they are out of focus.
I guess i must invest photo and lighting equipment…
As far as the polish is concerned, you might have a point, I will ask the lapidary.
Thank you for your valuable feedback on these stones…
Cheers
LaurentB
