Nature is the best creator and designer. She forms her masterpieces for millennia, patiently polishing her mastery. Man can only enjoy the amazing creations of her hands. Such magnificent works are stones. Precious and semi-precious, they have long been used for inlaying jewelry, decorating royal palaces and houses of worship. Ornaments with opals were valued dearly and not everyone could afford. According to legend, gems are the frozen tears of Zeus's joy after defeating the titans.
His Majesty the Opal
Opal jewelry connoisseurs called a stone, which consists of a hydrogel of silicon dioxide and water (no more than ten percent). It is especially appreciated because of its diversity, because it can have more than a hundred shades. The most common colors: red, green, blue, purple, yellow, blue, pink. During formation, inclusions of other minerals that make it unique may fall into the stone. In addition, particles of manganese, iron, nickel or other elements determine the name of the variety of opal.
The play of light, opalescence, is another advantage of this stone. It can be zonal, solid or point, the surface can be heterogeneous and uneven. For this, designers with bizarre imagination adore him. The best form for opal, which is also called "crack" for fragility, is the cabochon.
Gem deposits
About 95 percent of opal production comes from Australia. There are also minor mineral deposits in Sudan, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Peru, and Mexico. In England, mines with black or royal stones are being developed. Not so long ago, a large gem deposit with special characteristics was discovered in Ethiopia.
New Ethiopian opals appeared on the market in 2008. A field called Wegel Tena is two hundred kilometers distant from Mezezo, a long-known and nearly depleted vein. Addis Ababa is more than five hundred kilometers from it. This region is formed by volcanic basalt, rhyolite calderas and sedimentary rocks. The layer of mineralized opal is quite thin, so it is mined with the help of manual work, a hammer and a shovel. But the reserves of the noble gem have not yet been appreciated.
Opal Ethiopian and its features
New opals from the Black Continent are usually white or yellow. Of course, there are stones of a rather dark shade - brown, almost black. Their distinguishing feature is their exceptional hardness and resistance to mechanical damage. Due to such qualities, the mineral does not crack much during mining and processing. That is why the price of Ethiopian opal is quite high. Natural stone weighing 0.75 carats can be purchased for 1,500–2,000 rubles.
The stones from Wegel Tena are porous, which gives room for imagination. For example, if you soak them in water for a long time, they will lose the play of light and become transparent. A few days later, when the Ethiopian opal is completely dry, its structure and previous characteristics are fully restored.
Unusual drawings, color game effects in these gems are also exceptional. Today you can find a natural Ethiopian opal, painted by nature under the skin of a lizard or snake. It should be noted that only artificial minerals created in the laboratory could have had such a color before. Therefore, only high-level specialists can distinguish a fake from a truly noble stone.
Marketing Tricks
Fans of precious stones are a large number. To enjoy its natural beauty, you should take good care of it for a very long time. Choosing a natural Ethiopian opal, the photo of which captivated at first sight, it should be remembered that the play of color may differ in reality from the picture. In addition, the visible visual effect is largely dependent on the angle of view and lighting. Therefore, be prepared that the ordered stone may differ from the image displayed in the window of the online store.
Today on sale you can find a stone soaked in colorless natural oil (often used for Australian opals). This procedure enhances the play of color and fixes it. But over time, even the oil evaporates, so the jewelry loses its beauty. You can help him at home, having at hand a pressure cooker pan with a hermetically sealed lid and any natural oil (it is advisable to take hemp or cedar).
The subtleties of care
It is better to store jewelry made of a noble mineral in a closed box where constant temperature and humidity are kept. Do not expose them to overheating or hypothermia, overdrying, direct sunlight. If such a nuisance happened, you can soak the Ethiopian opal in clean (optimally distilled) water for a day at room temperature and dry it under the same conditions. If the upper layers did not have time to collapse due to low (high) temperature, chemical exposure, then the play of color will be restored completely.
The magical properties of the mineral
Humanity for its long history has been ambivalent about disgrace. He was admired and feared, he was guarded and adorned with himself. Alchemists considered it to be a very strong stone; in the Middle Ages it was used for magical purposes and was called the "eye of evil." It was believed that only people born under the constellation Scorpio can control the strength of this mineral, so only they were allowed to wear it on the index finger of his right hand. If an opal is inserted into a gold frame, then its magical properties are doubled.
The white stone is ambiguous. He is a symbol of moods and betrayals, can give rise to illusions and deceptive hopes. But at the same time, it affects the growth of spirituality, warns of dangers, awakens the gift of clairvoyance and prophecy, creates harmony in life. But even such an opal enhances a person’s qualities, both positive and negative.
Opal in medicine
From ancient times, man used the gifts of nature in medicine, so opal was no exception. Indian doctors treated him with special honor. It was used to treat the digestive system and respiratory tract infections, skin diseases and gynecology. The stone helps to combat stress and insomnia, rickets, normalizes the condition of children with developmental delay. In the Middle Ages, they believed that if you look at the game of the color of the mineral every day, then vision is restored. And they protected themselves from the plague. Modern science claims that opal really has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the nervous system and brain, and improves immunity.
Some interesting facts
Rainbow gems are used by jewelers around the world. Ethiopian opal, as well as stone from other continents, is set in gold and silver frames. It is used in pendants, rings, earrings, there are cases when he adorned royal tiaras. Interestingly, the opals are the most valuable black and opaque, followed by milky white stones.
The Australian Museum (Sydney), the Natural History Museum (Vienna), and the Smithsonian Institution (Washington) store the world's most famous opals. For example, this includes Rebling's opal, the fire opal from the Hope collection; black opal "Devonshire" weighing one hundred carats; Nuling Nera stone (from the Goddard collection); "Red Admiral" with a butterfly-shaped pattern; the huge mineral is the Australian Olympics and the Fire Queen with a red spot (the opal itself is enclosed in a green ring).